With a 5-kg gas stove and the roadside as his kitchen: How this Jharkhand truck driver became a household name

When it comes to cooking a meal after a tiring day, we often make excuses, calling it a tiring deal and end up ordering or preferring ready-to-eat meals. But, there exists a truck driver, who not only travels miles in his truck but also cooks his food on the journey and vlogs it. That's how, in the age of the internet and social media, he has become a household name in a short span. Scroll down to read about his journey.Rajesh Rawani, 48, a native of Jharkhand is a truck driver by profession and a YouTuber by passion, with more than 2.84 million subscribers on YouTube and 2 million followers on Instagram. What looks like a regular truck to many doubles up as a tiny, functional kitchen, where he cooks elaborate meals including meat. For Rajesh, it all started with updating his family about his whereabouts on WhatsApp, where he used to send them photos and videos of his daily routine while traveling with goods, putting simple ingredients together for lunch, and sometimes, trying to cook while in the middle of a forest.In 2021, his eldest son Sagar Rawani decided to start a YouTube channel to document his father's videos, named it R Rajesh Vlogs and uploaded a few videos. And in no time, the vlog had more than 4k subscribers and in a couple of months the numbers reached in lakhs. And that is when his son started travelling with him to record his videos to bring in more quality content for the users. What makes his vlogs unique is that the elaborate dishes like chicken curry or fish curry, are not cooked in a fancy setup, rather, they come along with the sound of honking, traffic, natural light, and the hustle of city life, as he cooks and records mostly on the roadside using his 5 kg gas stove and the earth as his kitchen platform.One section of his truck is his mini pantry where he stores the basic ingredients and spices, and for the rest, he relies on markets along the way for meat and fish.If you look at his video, it is a blend of cooking narration along with his routine for the day, where he is travelling and the estimated time of departure and arrival, which also works as the information that he wants to send to his family in the process. What makes it relatable? Well, it is the unfiltered realistic content and how food is generally prepared with basic ingredients and simple looking utensils. According to Rajesh, his work is loved by youngsters as it helps them make those simple dishes in hostels or PGs.While his journey as a vlogger has been inspiring, it all started with a noble thought of working hard, cooking simple meals with love and sharing them with others. But when the camera came into the picture, it became a medium to connect with others who could feel it and relate to the genuineness with which he talks about a dish, shares the struggles of washing veggies, meat, chopping, cutting, and managing it all with a smile and then the satisfaction that the humble looking thali brings to his face.In the present time, where dhabas and cafes can be spotted after every few kilometers on a highway, Rajesh's journey is a testament that we are never too tired to cook a simple meal and that there is nothing called 'perfect' when it comes to living a happier life.