Woman driving car is now a common sight in most metro cities. However, we have rarely seen women driving heavy vehicles on road. It is a common sight in western countries but not in India. Here we have a...

Woman driving car is now a common sight in most metro cities. However, we have rarely seen women driving heavy vehicles on road. It is a common sight in western countries but not in India. Here we have a woman truck driver from Kerala who has been doing this for years now. Her name is Jelaja Ratheesh and she is over 40 year old. She has driven commercial trucks through the length and breadth of the country. One of her recent trip was to Meghalaya and in one of the videos, the woman trucker shows how they manage to cook food when they are on such long road trips.

The video has been shared by Puthettu Travel Vlog on their YouTube channel. In this video, the woman truck driver along with the co-driver and her husband and cameraman were on a road trip to Meghalaya. The couple was passing through Odisha in this episode. In the video, the driver does mention how cops in Odisha treat outstation vehicles. They also talk about the difficulties they face at toll plazas across the country.

They have been stopped multiple times by cops and RTO where they were asked to pay bribe when the driver showed them proper paperworks, they let the vehicle go. Some of them where amazed to see a lady driver behind the steering wheel. We have seen people camp in their cars when they are on road trips. This is not possible in a truck.

The Bharat Benz truck that is seen here in the video gets a bed for one at the back. This is utilised by the co-driver most of the time. Three people cannot sleep at the same time in this truck. There is not much space left in the cabin after this. In most cases, they stop at road side hotels and buy food for themselves. In places where they find it hard to locate a hotel on the highway, they stop the truck next to the road and then open a storage box on the left hand side of the truck.

The storage compartment has gas stove, groceries, gas cylinder, utensils and all essential items. It is kept in a propet metal box under cargo space. The woman driver takes out all the utensils and cooks food. She cooks rice in a pressure cooker and also cooks dal in a small pressure cooker. Pressure cooker helps in cooking food a lot faster and they can also save on the fuel. They try to make simple food that doesn’t take a lot of their time.

They also carry other food items with them that are not easily perishable or have longer shelf life (pickles). On her way to Meghalaya, Jeleja met several other truckers on road who have been following their content online. Most of them were from other states and even with language barriers they meeted her and also appreciated her. She always wanted to visit new places and by driving truck she can fulfill her dreams of visiting places while earning. She learned how to drive only after getting married to Ratheesh.

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