Merry Christmas and Highlights of November

24.12
Hello again from the ayurvedic center in Coimbatore. The treatment is going on very well and I am really happy to be here. I used part of the free time to update a bit by travel diary and my blog, so here I am with some highlights and pictures from last month.

I also take the chance to wish Merry Christmas to all of you!
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I spent all of november in the State of Tamil Nadu and here are some of the highlights:

- Volunteering in Chennai: I volunteered for one week in Chennai in the Don Bosco Institute of Communication and Arts. I held a presentation of my South America trip, gave a speech in front of 1000 (!) children during an short-film festival and I even took part in a short film shot with the aim of presenting the project and asking for donations.
- beach & temples: I spent 5 days chilling in Mamallapuram and Kanchipuram, bathing for the first time in the Bay of Bengala and visiting a lot of wonderful temples
- “yoga vacation” at Sivananda Ashram: 2 weeks of yoga in all its forms (asanas, satsang, prayers, chanting, lessons), along with proper diet (sattwik vegetarion food) and a great group of around 20 participants. Result: wonderful experience and inner peace as my new travel companion
- Kanyakumari, the “end of India”: I spent the last 2 days of November in Kanyakumari, the southern part of all the Indian subcontinent. I enjoyed wonderful sunrise in the spot where 3 seas meet, celebrating the beginning of a new day together with hundreds of pilgrims visiting a famous temple.

It was a very spectacular month I really enjoyed and below you can find some pictures.

Enjoy and all the best
Massi on the road

PS: Every month I send out some articles to my friends in Italy, Austria, Germany and around the world. If you are interested in directly receiving them once a month (in Italian or German), please send me an email: massimiliano_schiliro@hotmail.com

Children Film Festival in Chennai

Sea Shore Temple in Mamallapuram

I and Swami-Ji at Sivananda Ashram

Massi on the road in India, Highlights October 2013

13.12.2013

Hello from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. I have been in India for more than 3 months now and I only wrote one time in my blog...well, I guess it is good so, as the best way to explore and discover this crazy, wonderful country is by getting full-immerged in its vital and various cultural and spiritual life.
I am in an Ayurvedic Hospital at the moment and I started a 3-week treatment last Monday. As the word “hospital” immediately scares many people: I am fine, thank you! I am actually feeling extremely good, both physically and mentally. Yet, I decided to attend this treatment to cure some small disturbs derived from the many years where I was not leading a particularly healthy lifestyle. I will tell you more about this experience in the next weeks. 

Now, I would like to take the chance to write a few updates about what happened in the last months. September, as you can read in my last blog post, was mainly dedicated to volunteering in Mumbai.

In October I started my actual India trip, visiting different cities in Maharajastra state and then heading to Andra Pradesh. Here are some of the highlights:

- Vipassana meditation course: from 2nd to 13th of October I attended a 10-day Vipassana meditation course. Complete silence and 10 hours of meditation per day. It was very difficult and hard, yet one of the best experiences of my life. You can find more information about Vipassana here: . If you are interested in knowning how my personal experience was, just send me a message :-)

- Temples and more temples in Nasik and Aurangabad: after 10 days of meditation I really needed some movement and a few days of travelling. I visited the cities of Nasik and Aurangabad, famous for their hindu temples and palaces. I must admit I was very impressed by the archtectonic and artistical wonders I discovered. One of the highlight was the i”Bibi-qa-Maqbara” in Aurangabad, the “Taj Mahal of the poor” ;-)

- Visiting Don Bosco projects in Hyderabad and volunteering in Vijayawada: I spent the last 2 weeks of November in the state of Andra Pradesh. First, in its capital, Hyderabad, visiting Don BoSCO Projects for the Austrian NGO I used to work with in Vienna. Then, volunteering in different street children projects in Vijayawada. In both places I had wonderful, touching experiences, with the kids, with other volunteers (a fanstastic group from Germany and Austria!) and with the blocal partners.

October was indeed a wonderful month on the road, and below you can find some pictures.
Enjoy and all the best
Massi on the road

PS: Every month I send out some articles to my friends in Italy, Austria, Germany and around the world. Here you can find the October articles in Italian and German (I had no time to translate them into English). If you are interested in directly receiving them once a month, please send me an email: massimiliano_schiliro@hotmail.com

Vipassana Meditation

Aurangabad

Don Bosco Shelter in Andra Pradesh