Some stories are written in heaven, the tale of Ranjit Singh Raj is one of them. His anecdote starts from the dusty lanes of Jaipur, Rajasthan and ends at the amazing life in Geneva.
Raj’s life is full of hard work, grit, resilience and more. He belongs to an underprivileged family and had a tough childhood. His family sent him to school under the thought that he would become something, but he had a negligible interest in school and education.
Raj said, “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.”
He left school at the age of 16 and started driving an auto-rickshaw in the lanes of Jaipur. He did this job for several years.
Raj was unaware of his hidden entrepreneurship skills. Many times he noticed other autowallas speaking in foreign languages like English, French, and Spanish to attract tourists.
At that time, Raj decided to learn the English language. He said, “That was in 2008. Many young people were then doing IT, but I just wanted to learn English.”
His desire encouraged him to set up a tourism business in Jaipur and he became an auto-rickshaw driver cum travel guide for the tourists. It was then that he met his future wife, his life turned into something good.
Raj’s wife was his client who was landed in India to travel and explore the country. As written in fate, Raj was his travel guide and showed her Jaipur. As same as a Bollywood film, they fell in love with each other.
Raj told, “We first met at the City Palace. She had come with one of her friends to travel around India. We started liking each other and when she returned back to France, we were still connected through Skype. Eventually, we realized that we were in Love!”
Raj tried several times to go to France to meet her lady love, but his visa application got rejected. They became impatient after multiple rejections.
In 2014 they got married and later had a child. Then Raj applied for a long-term visa with French Embassy.
He said, “I was asked to learn French. I took classes at The Alliance France in New Delhi and got a certificate, which helped me get a long-term visa.”
He now lives in Geneva with his family and works at a restaurant. He has also started a YouTube channel where he teaches how to cook.
He dreams to be an owner of a restaurant and is working hard to make it happen. May his hard work payback soon!