After college, I had three options: Go for masters; get a job or come back to my hometown & manage the family business.
I choose what might seem the least exciting one. I came back home. To me it was very clear: Being at home is going to help me pursue my passion for Automobiles.
I was 21 years old & still in college when I built my first custom motorcycle from scrap. By the age of 22, I had 4 custom automobiles.
When I came back to Kota in 2015, my collection had grown to 10 custom vehicles. I started a rental company of luxury & vintage vehicles in the same year.
I am “Devashish Jethwani”, a collector of vintage & luxury vehicles. I own the brand DJC ( Devashish Jethwani Customs ).
Today, I have 44 motorcycles & 7 cars in my collection. Every single one of them is equally dear to me. People do find these from my collection extremely attractive –
1954 Bsa C10L 250 from Chennai
1947 Vauxhall UK Import Convertible from West Bengal
1951 Morris Minor 2 Door from Bombay
1960 Innocenti Lambretta Scooter from Banaras
1963 DJC Customized Jawa 250 and
a 1973 Czech Republic Jawa 250
Some people confuse if I am into the buying and selling vehicle business. I am not. DJC is purely a rental company. When I buy an automobile, I buy with an intent to keep it with me for the rest of my life. There were instances when people offered me 4 times the actual price of a vehicle and I happily turned them down.
When I will be 60 years old, I don’t want to have any regrets of what if I would have kept the vehicle with me. So I take this courageous step of not selling, which may sound like a stupid idea. But this “stupid step” is key to my eternal happiness.
Seeing the way I keep my automobiles, there are people who had given me their precious vehicle. They have confidence that I will take care of their vehicle better than they do, so they give me at a much lower price, sometimes even half the original price. Such moments are blessings for me. They are the signs of confirmation that living life on my terms has been the best thing I did.
This Humans of Kota feature is on Devashish Jethwani. To read more Humans of Kota stories, go to our Facebook page.