We’ve been friends since we were in our diapers,” Ethan tells me as we pull out of his driveway in Bengaluru. “Rohit and I grew up right next to each other.”
Ethan Mascarenhas was born in Udaipur, Rajasthan, and spent his school years in Rajasthan’s lake city. His father managed a hotel there, a humble property on the banks of Lake Pichola. Rohit and Ethan spent the bulk of their childhood in the tiny lanes of Udaipur’s old city, engaging in shenanigans as children do. But as the years passed, things changed.
“I always wanted more from life than Udaipur could offer. Big opportunities are difficult to come by there,” says Ethan. Fascinated by video as a medium of art and communication, he moved to Bengaluru to collaborate with an acquaintance and launch his own video production house. Rohit, in the meantime, stayed back in Udaipur. He enjoyed working in the city’s bustling hospitality industry and started working with Ethan’s father after college.
The video production business kept Ethan busy. He would end up travelling regularly for work, making it impossible for him to go home. He hadn’t gone home in six years, he told me. “I miss my best friend,” he says wistfully.
When the ‘Bridging Distances’ post popped up on his Facebook feed, Ethan jumped at the chance. He really wanted to go back home and spend some quality time with his family and his best friend.
Bengaluru to Udaipur was a long haul, but Ethan was more than happy to spend all his time behind the wheel. “I’m not a relaxed driver,” he warned me as we set off. “I’m safe, but I am not relaxed.”
The moment we hit the highway, Ethan downshifted and rapidly picked up speed. With his right foot pinning the accelerator to the ground, he gobbled the kilometres very, very quickly. The journey took us through Pune and Mumbai, followed by Surat and Vadodara, until finally, after two gruelling days, we entered Rajasthan. All along, Ethan stayed planted in the driver’s seat, his favourite tunes blasting from the music system.
Ethan was excited to drive in Rajasthan, on account of its famed roads. “This car feels really planted,” he told me. “It feels like it is glued to the road!”
Suraj Viswanathan
