BENGALURU: Keeping with the spirit of adventure, youngsters have found a way to travel with no cash. Cashless? How you ask? Hitchhiking is the answer. People between 20-30-years of age are finding travelling affordable within the country by going from Bengaluru to other states on trucks or lorries.
Twenty-five-year-old Akash Babu first hitched in 2015 from Kerala to Bengaluru. A travel enthusiast, Akash hopped into a lorry at a toll gate and decided to have a friendly conversation with the driver, giving him company in return for a free ride. While he was penniless at the time, Akash admits that being broke helped make travelling safer, as there were zero chances of getting robbed.
Struggling to make ends meet with a salary of Rs 20,000 in a city like Bengaluru, Akash says that hitchhiking has helped decrease the cost of travelling home to Kerala - Rs 3,000 per month for a bus or a train. “I love travelling alone and with a hectic work schedule, an adventure like this keeps my head clear,” says the marketing employee.
Aniket Chakaraborthy, a former corporate employee, decided to celebrate Holi last year and travelled to Bengal through Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Five of his friends tagged along for the 2,100km trip. “My friends wanted to understand how to approach these drivers, manage food and how to strike a conversation since I had hitchhiked before,” says the 29-year-old, who first hitchhiked with his friend Himanshu, a former software engineer, as part of a social experiment. The experiment was to figure out how safe hitchhiking is in India.
The youngsters found petrol pumps to be the best place to catch a lorry, as these are pit-stops for several inter-state trucks. On requesting the drivers for a lift, they were given a cashless ride as well as food. The trip’s duration was about six days. “They have sufficient food and treated us the same way they would treat a guest, by serving us food,” says Aniket.
While Akash was lucky enough to have had pleasant experiences so far, Aniket and Himanshu faced issues with a lorry driver who happened to be intoxicated and had dropped them off near a check-post after just a kilometer, as he had asked for money. “We had been approached by girls who wanted to know how safe hitchhiking is, but we would advice them to do it within city limits and avoid long-distance travel,” says Aniket.
Lift for company
Another interesting aspect about hitchhiking is that a form of barter system is put in place - a lift in return for some quality time. This has helped Aniket and Himanshu continue their friendship with at least three drivers to date. “One of the drivers pawned his phone for `200 for us after he heard about our trip and that we had no money,” explains Aniket.
Yogesh Sharma, a lorry driver who travels from Delhi to Bengaluru, says he takes around three people a month if he feels they are trustworthy. “I speak to them casually during the first few minutes, and based on my intuition, I try to understand what kind of people they are,” says the 36-year-old driver.
Although in most cases the drivers tend to avoid hitchhikers for safety issues, Yogesh prefers some company on long trips. “It gets a bit boring after a while, so I take just one person along if they wish to be dropped off on the way,” he says.
Vikas Kumar Singh, a 38-year-old, has been a lorry driver for 14 years and travels from Bengaluru to Bihar. He drove Aniket and his friends to their destination. He, however, had only come across this group of friends as hitchhikers and was happy to have met the lot. “We usually pick up only people we know or those in our locality as it is easier to trust them, but with Aniket, it was a different experience altogether,” says the driver, whose uncle had also travelled along with the group. Both Yogesh and Vikas admit that they have not faced any difficulties with hitchhikers so far, and are hoping to meet many Akash’s and Aniket’s in the future.
Tips while hitchhiking
Pack your bags light
Take essentials only
Do not dress heavy - talk politely to people. The most important form of communication is body language
On the way, there is no maybe - it has to be either yes or a no