American musician Diplo shares emotional account of his early ‘broke’ days in India; two decades later collaborated with Shah Rukh Khan

Diplo recalls buying a second-hand Royal Enfield Bullet in Delhi from a friend who taught him to ride, giving him just one rule: avoid cows and ride only from 2-6 am.

Years later, Diplo returned to India, now a successful artist, working with SRK and making billion-view hits like 'Lean-On'

Fresh off his electrifying performance at Royal Enfield Motoverse 2025 in Goa, which was held from November 21–23, global DJ-producer Diplo took to X on Wednesday to share a deeply personal and unexpectedly poetic thread about how India shaped him two decades ago. The musician, who returned to the country this month to ride across the Himalayas and headline the Enfield festival, reflected on his very first visit, a journey he made at just 20 with “nothing but a restless mind and an old Enfield.”

In the post, Diplo recalled buying a second-hand Royal Enfield Bullet in Delhi from a friend who taught him to ride “one dusty afternoon” before leaving for Florida with a warning: “Don’t hit a cow, and only ride between 2–6 am if you want to survive the heat and smog.”

“That,” Diplo wrote, “somehow became a philosophy for everything that followed.”

He went on to describe travelling across the country “like a kid inside a dream” – from Kolkata to Delhi to Rishikesh, sleeping on the bike when he had to, surviving on chai, and loading the Enfield onto trains whenever he could afford the fare. He swam in the Ganga, practised yoga with elders “who moved like water,” hunted for vinyl in hidden lanes, and experienced the heady, disorienting kind of romance that only your youth allows.

Diplo also recalled volunteering in Gujarat for earthquake relief work, where strangers welcomed him with food and warmth. He wrote that the country did not just build his confidence, it completely transformed him: “India didn’t just teach me independence, it cracked me open creatively… getting lost is a form of education.”

Check out the post:

I was 20 when I first came to India with nothing but a restless mind and an old Enfield I bought from a friend in Delhi who taught me to ride in one dusty afternoon. He took my money, flew back to Florida, and left me with one rule: don’t hit a cow, and only ride between 2–6 a.m.… pic.twitter.com/CxNusvAycg

— diplo (@diplo) December 2, 2025

The DJ then traced his unexpected return years later, no longer a broke traveller but an artist collaborating with the very stars he once watched on the computer in cafes. “I never imagined I’d be invited back… working with actors like SRK, making videos like ‘Lean On’ that crossed billions of views, nearly dying during spiritual side quests in Leh and Varanasi, falling for Bollywood sweethearts.”

Two decades later, life seems to have come full circle. Diplo wrote that he spent this year riding “nine hours a day across the Himalayas on a much newer Enfield,” before performing at Motoverse and ending the night celebrating in a motorcycle garage, almost exactly where his story had begun.

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In a final reflection, Diplo shared what India continues to mean to him after 25 years of returning to its roads and chaos and beauty: “Two decades have changed India and me both. But every time I come back, I feel the same truth: growth happens when you surrender to the unknown… India was my beginning. And somehow, it still is.”

The post went viral, and many netizens took to the comments to share their views. A user wrote, “Amazing. I felt that freedom again reading your words, of traveling into the unknown in India, across a country that welcomes you at every turn as generous hosts, marvels at how far you’ve come and delights in the experiences you live in their land. Jugaad days were the best.”

Another user commented, “I wish at least 1 out of 10 wealthy Indian men would look at their country the way your average footloose white dude does.”

A third person added, “India is a weird conundrum, the way you see & feel the country decides what journey you’ll take. Happy it was soul warming.”