The Amazing Tale Of 10th Fail Auto Walla & His Inspiring Journey From Jaipur To Switzerland

Some scripts are written in the stars. The tale of Ranjit Singh Raj from the dusty lanes of Jaipur to a life in Geneva, is one such unique anecdote.

Resilience, grit, and hard work, Raj's life has been all that and more. Belonging to an underprivileged family, he had a tough childhood. While his family sent him to school to 'become something', he had little interest in school.

"I am 10th-fail. I wasn’t good at my studies, but my folks sent me to school ‘to become something’. No one cared about creativity and imagination. I had zero ambition.” Raj told.

At the age of 16, he started driving an autorickshaw, a job which he did for several years in Jaipur.  

What Raj didn’t know was the hidden entrepreneurship in him. He says he noticed that other auto drivers spoke English, French, Spanish and other foreign languages to attract tourists.

“I was very impressed.”, he remembers. “That was in 2008. Many young people were then doing IT, but I just wanted to learn English.” 

It prompted him to set up a tourism business and he started taking foreign tourists around Rajasthan. As fate would have it, It was then that he met his future wife, and his life took a turn for good.

Raj's wife was his client. She had come to travel around India. Raj was her travel guide and showed her around Jaipur. As close as it can come to a Bollywood film, they soon fell in love.

We first met at the City Palace. She had come with one of her girlfriends to travel around India. We started liking each other and got talking. After she returned to France, we stayed connected via Skype. We realised we were in love," he told.

Raj made several attempts to go to France to meet her, but his visa application got rejected. They became impatient after multiple rejections.

He remembers, “We wondered how, after multiple visa rejections, we would be able to sustain our long-distance relationship. So on her next visit to India, we both sat in front of the French Embassy, in protest, demanding to meet the French Ambassador to India. An embassy official soon met us. They were initially sceptical about giving me a visa but finally granted me a three-month tourist visa to go to France. I made multiple trips after that and kept coming to France.”

In 2014 they got married and later had a child. Raj then applied for a long term visa with the French Embassy.

“I was asked to learn French. I took French classes at The Alliance France in New Delhi and got a certificate. That helped me get a long term visa.”

Raj now lives in Geneva, where he works at a restaurant. Recently, he started a YouTube channel to teach how to cook.

He also dreams of starting his own restaurant  and is working hard to make that happen.

What an incredible story!