00:00 "This van is our home and our way of life.
00:08 It appears to be slightly unusual and it does have its challenges, but I like it.
00:13 What we like tends to shape our lives, but it's not as simple as it appears."
00:25 Akhil and Shamshya, who claim to be India's first van-life couple, intend to go to London
00:30 by van.
00:31 They began their journey with the aim of travelling around the world in a Maruti Omni van and
00:37 have already seen nearly all of India's states.
00:42 "Our hometown is Trishul in Kerala, but it isn't just India that we consider our
00:48 home country because we're travellers.
00:50 We've gone all the way over the border to Nepal, to the China border, into Bhutan and
00:55 to the border of Myanmar.
00:57 These are one-of-a-kind experiences to have."
01:00 "Ever since I was very young, I always wanted to travel, but my parents are a bit strict
01:12 and the family is orthodox.
01:14 So that desire that I had as a young girl to go and travel the world wasn't something
01:18 I could follow.
01:19 I never believed that as a girl I could travel.
01:23 Things changed after Akhil came along.
01:25 He was the one who said, 'Hey, you can do it all.'
01:28 And that's why we've been travelling all across India as a van-life couple."
01:31 "I'm an automobile engineer.
01:42 As soon as my course was over, I moved to Qatar to start working.
01:46 But I had no job satisfaction, so I quit and came back to India.
01:51 What's the message we want to send to people with our travels?
01:54 Well, how to live a minimalistic lifestyle.
01:57 It's not for everyone.
01:59 And you can only adhere to a lifestyle if you're passionate about it.
02:02 And this is our passion."
02:03 "As you can see, this is our house.
02:13 When we open this door, the first thing you'll see is our bedroom.
02:16 We fold the bed away like this in order to make the most of the little space we have.
02:21 And we get all the electricity we need from the solar panel on the roof.
02:28 When you think of the fact that I'm a woman and that we travel as a couple, it really
02:32 seems like it's only fun all through.
02:35 But there are issues.
02:36 My safety, for example.
02:38 And hygiene, too.
02:39 That's important.
02:41 Since we're on the road, we have to use public restrooms on our journeys, and that can pose
02:45 issues.
02:47 We have to sanitize the bathrooms before using them.
02:50 Plus, when traveling like this, one needs to cook all of one's meals.
02:54 So there's the challenge of finding a safe spot to do that.
02:58 There are several such issues, but since we're passionate about traveling, we're able to
03:01 overcome those obstacles.
03:04 And we've proved that we can achieve things with passion.
03:13 We first had the idea to travel like this during the COVID pandemic.
03:17 At the time, Akhil's business wasn't doing well.
03:20 But the initial investment we needed to make was huge, since we needed to convert a Maruti
03:24 Omni into a motorhome.
03:28 I was able to sell some of my gold jewelry to get the funds we needed.
03:35 Our dream for the future is to travel to London in this van.
03:41 We dream of traveling across the whole world, but for now, we're working on Project London.
03:47 We do need some sponsorship to make it happen, though.
03:57 We've also launched a website to help people interested in taking similar journeys.
04:02 Shamshya is an online mental health professional.
04:05 The money she makes covers the cost of their journey.
04:15 We enjoy traveling, but long-term travel should have a sort of message associated with it
04:20 too.
04:21 So we've started an organization called SAVE, which stands for Save a Voice for Everyone.
04:28 And with this organization, we hope to help other people who have the desire to travel,
04:33 but don't know how to go about it.
04:36 Our Maruti Omni van is an 800cc vehicle.
04:39 And our desire is to travel the entire world in this van, not any other vehicle.
04:44 And we want to do it in a minimalistic way.
04:47 That really is our ultimate desire.
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