For the last 345 days, Ravi Sanganamaina has been living in a van and travelling across India. Travelling from Kanyakumari to Ladakh, the 25-year-old took up living in a van as a challenge. He spent his earnings modifying a van with the help of Navkar Motors in Vadodara to accommodate storage, a  bed, charging points, solar panels, a battery, and more. And, for all of 2024, he has been living, working, and carrying about life, travelling all out of a van. 

Sanganamaina is perhaps the only Indian to be living in a van permanently. But social media tells us about several van-lifers who have given up their homes in the West to make a caravan their permanent home. Recently, YouTube released a short documentary, Switching Lanes, which features creators who have chosen the van life. The van life phenomena grew exponentially post the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed people to work out of anywhere as long as they had a laptop and an Internet connection. It also led to a spurt in van life creators, who have garnered over a billion views on their content on YouTube alone. It’s what inspired Sanganamaina to take up the challenge.