Driving long-haul trucks is a dream job for this Kottayam woman

Jalaja was a homemaker for 19 years after her marriage to Ratheesh, a truck driver. But the 42-year-old felt jealous of her husband who travelled across the country as part of his work and expressed the wish to accompany him to Kashmir on their wedding anniversary. However, Ratheesh placed the condition that she could travel with him only if she drove the truck.

Even though Jalaja had earned a heavy licence in 2018, she had no inclination to drive trucks. But, this time, on being compelled by Ratheesh, Jalaja took the wheel and their loaded truck arrived in the Kashmir valley on the tenth day.

It was the beginning of a new journey for Jalaja. Her trips on a truck started on February 2, 2022 and have by now covered 22 states in India, several union territories – including Ladakh. Her trips too her even to neighbouring countries such as Nepal and Bhutan. Along with transporting goods to various places, Jalaja tries to discover India while driving the truck.

Moreover, drawing inspiration from Jalaja, her sister-in-law Soorya (wife of Ratheesh’s younger brother Rajesh) also obtained a heavy licence. Similarly, Jalaja’s daughter Devika earned it at the young age of 20. Thus, there are three truck drivers in the Puthett family now.

On the driver’s seat
Jalaja was born at Koruthodu in Mundakayam and shifted to Puthett House in Ettumanoor after marrying truck driver Ratheesh. Puthettu Travels was launched when Ratheesh and his younger brother Rajesh purchased their own truck. Currently, 27 Puthett trucks ply all over India and neighbouring countries – from Kanyakumari to Nepal and Gujarat to Assam – and three women have key roles in the operations; which is the change brought about by Jalaja.

The most curious and adventurous aspect of Jalaja’s work is that a woman is driving a truck with 12 tyres even along treacherous roads. “On one occasion, we were travelling along the Jammu-Srinagar highway where construction was going on. As the route runs through a terrain prone to landslides, large vehicles were stopped by transport authorities of the state at various places. During that trip, out truck was held up at a spot for six days because of a landslide. When we reached Jammu, there was a long queue of vehicles waiting for clearance. I had to walk 2 kilometres to find a hotel to freshen up,” said Jalaja.

Once a journey starts with a load, the truck has to travel round the clock until the destination is reached. Jalaja and Ratheesh take turns in driving, with one person at the wheel while the other person sleeps in the cabin.

“During these journeys, we use the washrooms in petrol pumps. Food is prepared by ourselves, for which utensils and a stove are carried in the truck,” said Jalaja.

Jalaja had wished to visit Nepal ever since she watched the Malayalam movie ‘Yoddha’ and she realized that dream soon after starting to drive the truck. “Our first trip was to Hyderabad, and from there, we took a load to Nepal,” she said.

Jalaja later made another trip to Kashmir, which was simply to watch apples on trees. On the way back, she saw the glaciers in Gulmarg and igloo. “We took the load for the return trip only after visiting the Golden Temple in Punjab and the Taj Mahal in Agra,” she said.

On another trip, Jalaja took her mother-in-law Leela to Mumbai and Haridwar in the truck. They offered ‘aarati’ (devotional lamp) at Rishikesh during this journey and finally, they were back home 23 days after covering 11 states.

Jalaja is yet to visit Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Sikkim, Mizoram, Tripura and Manipur. If she does, Jalaja would become the first woman to drive a truck in every state of the country.

YouTube channel
Before the trip to Kashmir with her truck, Jalaja had mentioned about the journey to some friends and they asked her to send videos of her experiences. “Everyone liked those videos and photos. That gave us the idea to launch a YouTube channel named ‘Puthettu Travel Vlog’, which has over 4.25 lakh subscribers now,” she said.

Jalaja’s elder daughter Devika, who is a BCom student at Rajagiri College, Ernakulam, obtained a heavy licence by the age of 20 and the video of her first drive went viral when it was posted on Women’s Day. Devika’s younger sister Gopika, who is studying BBA in Chennai, is also awaiting her heavy licence.