Every once in a while life decides to play through us and create something that far exceeds our own expectation. Something similar happened a few months ago, when The Eco Trunk attempted to bring together people who are Vegans and break the stereotypes of ‘What Vegans look like’? And we were stumped with the outstanding response. And once something good begins, you only wish to make it better each time.
So we sat, scratched our heads a little and decided to make this year’s ‘What Vegans Look Like?’ – a Travel special event. And we are super happy to share that our panel has four faces that truly represent the spirit of travelling. They will share with us what it means to travel – the journeys, the excitement, the challenges and the alchemy that is travelling.
Shivya Nath (a.k.a The Shooting Star)
Shivya is among the most well recognised names in the Indian travel circuit. Now on the road for six continuous years, Shivya is the quintessential nomad who has travelled across the globe from well documented destinations to offbeat locations.
Shivya is an inspiration because she has worked around the three most common hold ups against travelling – one of being a solo traveller, second of being a woman traveller and third of being a vegan. But as she writes in one of her articles.
Featured on the cover of Natgeo Traveler, Huffington Post and a celebrated speaker at TEDx, Shivya has received innumerable recognition from the stalwarts in the travel industry. She was also voted as the Indian’s Best Travel Blogger by Vogue India and the Indian Blogger Awards.
Kuntal Joisher
He accomplished this amazing feat in May 2016’. And let’s be clear, that one moment of glory is backed by a lot of perseverance. Kuntal pushed on to the summit a third time, after the initial two unsuccessful attempts, several near death encounters and also the loss of a fellow mountaineer. When asked about what drove him to scale the highest known peak known to man, he says.
Kuntal now continues with his future travels and is a celebrated speaker at many events, especially the ones aimed at spreading awareness about healthy eating, vegan living and fitness. When people talk about lack of nutrition from vegan food, all he does is smile, maybe sometimes raise an eyebrow playfully and that’s it. Maybe that’s what happens when we practise what we preach!
Chidanand Hiremath
A photographer, artist, vegan, Chidanand is the face of a classy digital nomad. As someone who is on a mission to exhaust the pages in their passport, he has recently completed voyages to over 30 countries.
Now for the people who feel that you need to have a lot of money to travel, this is how he responds through one of his blogposts, “I don’t come from a rich or privileged background, I went to public school, there’s no ancestral property or money, no apartments to rent for passive-incomes but I can still manage to travel 9 months a year”.
We don’t even want to bring in the vegan angle here but that does makes the whole tale dreamier. You can count on Chi to be overflowing with energy (it’s all in the name), upright and unforgiving about archaic world views.
Pooja Masurkar
Our youngest panelist this year, a baker by profession and a traveller at heart, Pooja is hailed as a savior by all vegans with a sweet tooth in Mumbai. At 23, she runs her bakery (and very successfully), teaches cooking/baking and travels to places where she exchanges her skills for B&B. That’s a very sorted girl at a very early age Pooja has also recently learnt Permaculture. When asked more about it she said, “I go into nature to learn from it, the tastes, designs, nature is my inspiration for everything. And there has always been a part of me that has wanted to grow food. Permaculture helps me meet such people. It’s good to know the hands that grow your food. Also the principles of permaculture are holistic and apply to people equally. When you learn more about food, how to grow it, take care of the Earth, it changes you as a person”.
We are truly looking forward to this session with all our panelists. And because we can never have enough fun, our event will be held at The Cat Café Studio. Which means you get to play with super-adorable, furry rescued cats, as our travelers narrate their tales. This is as close as it gets to our idea of a good life.
