An Evening with a Travelling Travelers Club

Tripoto
19th Aug 2017

When you travel more than half the Earth and almost don't spend a dime!

Photo of Pune, Maharashtra, India by Zhen Paintal

A couple of days ago I had a fantastic opportunity to be a part of something abundantly fresh in our city, The Found on All Fours (FOAF) Show-off – Pune Edition. I simply explain this concept to my friends such; it’s a travelling traveler’s meet, where you can meet some crazy as travelers and hear stories first hand.

The chapter I was invited to was themed stories from the seas/waters. The evening invited travelers and their tales, from far and wide, all surround the waters of our planet deep and shallow. A sailor for 50 years, a turtle conservationist, an Antarctic expeditionist, a travelling couple who take their dogs along, dive masters, and deep sea creature fanatics, a real time doodler capturing the entire evening and a live stand up music act. Since I had absolutely no stories of water from me, I performed a poetry I recently wrote for travelers and the ideal way to roll.

Photo of An Evening with a Travelling Travelers Club by Zhen Paintal

More about the club;

Found on all Fours is an initiative by Anoop Chugh and Kriti Binani. The idea is to find intimate spaces, like a rooftop that offers a space where musicians, artists, storytellers, poets, dancers – all of whom are bound for their love for travel or arts can come and jam together. So far they’ve hit off 4 chapters – 3 in Delhi themes; The experiential India travel, The foods of the world & Stories from South America and one in Pune themed Stories from the sea.

Anoop say’s FOAF “It's a river. It's flowing with a lot of stories and sounds. It takes along with it everything it meets. It's a constantly evolving community of story-tellers.” Some stories are told through presentations; while others are told through, fire, through music, through dance, through poetry.

Photo of An Evening with a Travelling Travelers Club by Zhen Paintal

Insights from the creators (Kriti & Anoop);

The story behind Found on all Fours (including its name)

A few months before we got hitched we developed two pairs of cold feet. We didn’t know what to do with our four cold feet, so we decided to take them on impromptu travels to certain places that matter. And soon enough, the four feet found their own footing about the places and people. Kriti and I wanted to document every story we encountered while traveling. We wanted the main protagonist to be the place in those stories, instead of us. So, we started using our feet instead of our faces. Hence came the name found on all fours. Also, it represents us leaving our footprints around the world.

What got you to start something like this, a travelling traveler's meet is not something common around here?

We have realized that each of the travel bloggers, musicians, performance artists and story tellers live in isolation of the digital world. They have tons of followers but there's no real interaction and conversation. Show-off is like a hostel terrace where all nomads meet once in a while to share. This is the real life share button.

Photo of An Evening with a Travelling Travelers Club by Zhen Paintal

Tell our readers about the chapters held so far, along with some of the most interesting guests FOAF’s encountered.

The first chapter had all of seven people. The second one had thirty. The third one had forty. The fourth one was in a new city. It's this underground moment that some hear from the others and join. It's a free space where people come and perform voluntarily and leave behind some indelible stories.

Most interesting travellers have to be; an 83-year-old sailor with 50 years of experience, a two-month-old traveler whose nomadic parents wanted him to start young with a traveler’s community, a Jew who survived the North Korea only to break myths about that place, a young lad who travels with his dog to every place & a paper sculptor who makes life-size human figures with paper.

Photo of An Evening with a Travelling Travelers Club by Zhen Paintal

What do you hope to stir with this initiative?

We want to go back in time and discuss travel how it used to be. The vision is to be this traveling circus of storytellers who leave behind a lot of stories from around the world and of course, best practices when it comes to sustainable travel.

A message you want to leave our travelers with and a word on new cities waiting to be found on all fours?

Keep flowing. Static things are more often than not, dead. We want to keep flowing in search of stories and everything art.

After successful chapters in Delhi & Pune, we are looking at Calcutta and Bangalore, apart from Mumbai, if we get hosts. We have an invite from dharmashala as well.

Photo of An Evening with a Travelling Travelers Club by Zhen Paintal

Join the circus;

If you are a brand with a huge tilt towards sustainable travel, the community is looking for some sponsorship to make a few documentaries on sustainable travel that translates conversations into action. If you are a travel enthusiast and have an interesting story to tell, or have an aesthetic terrace/lawn/living room to fill, Anoop & Kriti are your tribe, they'd love to bring this circus to you. To be a part of any of their chapters is simply not a walk in, find out more with them directly, drop a word on their Facebook, Instagram or e-mail them. Find out more about their travel stories on their official website. Happy traveling through stories!