Back in Italy and India's dark and bright sides: a reflection

Extract from the February Newsletter of Sustainable Couch: 

"I am writing this text from Italy. I am back home after spending nearly 6 months in “incredible India”, as the country is officially defined by its tourism department. Many thoughts cross my mind but, first and foremost, is the gratitude I feel towards such a wonderful country who welcomed me for the last half a year. India is so complex, unlike any other country (at least from the ones I have visited) that it will take me a long time to “digest” and understand what I have seen. On the bright side: the natural beauty, the generosity of the people I have met, the great spiritual tradition. On the dark side: the extreme poverty of a huge part of the population, the ecological devastation, the deep-rooted problems connected to gender and casts. It would take a lot of space to describe them all.
For this reason, I would like to just present a few topics related to sustainability that could be of interest to Sustainable Couch members. This is a purely subjective point of view as I don't claim to be an expert after only a few months in India!

 

 
Tourism: boon and bane
During my trip I had the chance to visit some of the most beautiful places in the south of India: the beaches of Kerala and Goa, the ancient ruins of Hampi and the temples of Tamil Nadu, among others. I noticed both good and bad aspects associated with tourism throughout. The positive news: more and more travel agencies offer tours which aim at limiting the ecological impact of the visit, whilst improving the economic situation of local people. But I often had the impression that “eco” and “green” were just empty words added to “tours” to make them more appealing, even if they were not sustainable at all. For example, in the “backwaters” region of Kerala, hundreds of houseboats offering this very cruise ended up causing traffic jams in the rivers, considerably polluting the area. Most of the population here still work in the fields and see no profit whatsoever from the area’s tourism. What’s worse, they will be the ones suffering the most if the fragile ecosystems are abused and damaged further.
 
A wonderful encounter in decadent Goa
Goa is famous for its wonderful beaches and its wild electronic music parties. During the 10 days I spent in the smallest Indian state, the word that kept on coming to mind was: decadent. This is because Goa has become the main destination for mass tourism, both Indian and foreign. The beaches are packed with ugly hotels and resorts which ruin the landscape. The tourists only move around by taxi or motorbike and the beautiful coastal paths have been turned into waste dumps. Most come to Goa to party and don't take the environment into consideration during their stay. In this frustrating situation, it was a pleasant relief to meet my old friend François, who travelled by bicycle from Holland to India (his incredible story was presented in the past two newsletters: January 2013 and July 2011) and is now teaching yoga in Anjuna. I hope that he will be able to inspire people in the area about ecological and social topics, in order to improve the situation. Every little step in the right direction counts!
 
 
Back to Mumbai: end of the road
After 4 months of travelling around, I went back to the place where my stay in India began: Mumbai. As in September 2013, I worked as a volunteer in the Don Bosco Shelter, an institution which looks after ex-street children. Spending time with the boys was the best way to complete my Indian experience; I will never forget their smiling faces. My trip is now over but I hope to be back one day!"

Back in Mumbai and highlights December

11.2.2014
After travelling in South India for the last 4 months I am back in Mumbai, where the trip started. As in September 2013, I am volunteering at the Shelter Don Bosco. It's so great spending time with the shelter boys again and share with them the experiences of the last months.
I have only 4 more days to go in India, then I am flying back to Italy!
___________

Even if quite a lot of time has passed, I would like to finally describe some of the highlights from last December:

- The beaches and backwaters of Kerala: I spent the first 10 days of December in Kerala. I enjoyed the wonderful beaches of Kovalam and Varkala. Here I also met again Todd and Marie, a couple I had met at the ashram in November. We went to practise yoga every morning in the beach and it was really great. After Varkala, I spent a few days at Aleppey, taking a local ferry boat to discover the famous “backwaters”

- Ayurvedic treatment near Coimbatore: as a pre-present for my 33th birthday, which I celebrated on Janury 2nd, I attended a 3-week treament called “Panchakarma” in an ayurvedic clinic. For 21 days I had daily massage, delicious sattvic food, natural medicines and a lot of time to rest, regenerate and reflect. The calmest Christmas of my life. I missed my family a lot but I enjoyed a deep peace I want to bring with me also while travelling

- New Year's Eve in Ooty: after the Panchakarma I moved to Ooty. Situated at 2200 meters a.s.l., it got really cold in the night. But during day I enjoyed the wonderful mountains and landscapes and thus concluded in the best way a fantastic year 2013

December was a wonderful month 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

The beach of Varkala

Ayurveda treatment near Coimbatore

The mountains around Ooty

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!
_____________

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

Massi and Sustainable Couch in Mumbai, India

My highlights in India, SEPTEMBER 2013

“On 5th September I arrived in Mumbai, and started the 2nd part of my world trip. After my 15 month trip in South America, this time I will be travelling in India for nearly 6 months. The continent has changed, but my aims are the same: to discover new countries and cultures, meet the people who live there and spread the values of solidarity and sustainability.

Volunteering at Shelter
In order to get acclimatised to the new environment, I decided to spend the first month in Mumbai, the financial capital of India. I worked as a volunteer in a so-called “Shelter”, an institution that takes care of ex-street children, offering them a place to live, education, counseling and help. Around 65 children live in the Shelter and live together as a big family with competent and loving staff that takes care of them. So, after spending weeks and sometimes months living in the streets, they finally have a home again.
I spent a lot of time with the children, playing games, teaching English and helping them with their homework. This way I had the opportunity to learn about their lives and their dreams. I had a lot of fun doing sport and art activities with them, especially during a “hair-style body-painting” workshop.
My time at Shelter Don Bosco was wonderful and I am really grateful to the Fathers, the staff and of course to the children for the opportunity to spend such an amazing time together!

Discovering sustainability in Mumbai
Mumbai, formerly called Bombay, is a megacity with around 20 million inhabitants. Many of them live in slums, which are heavily populated informal settlements characterised by precarious housing and poverty. The environmental situation in the city is very bad: the intense traffic causes high levels of air pollution, green areas are cut down to build new houses and garbage recycling or collection is barely present. Even if the situation is rather bleak at the moment, many committed people are being pro-active in order to improve it. I had the pleasure to get to know an environmental NGO called GreenLine, which focuses on awareness programs within schools. I accompanied them on a day-trip to a National Park organised for 80 school-girls. We learnt a lot about the local flora and fauna and had a great time. In the next part of the newsletter you will find out more about Green Line and at the end a bonus video featuring their staff will present the story so far and the current projects, so keep on reading!

The trip goes on
After spending a wonderful month in the city, I left Mumbai to attend a 10-day Vipassana meditation course. Since then, much has happened and I would like to share it with you.
There are monthly updates in Italian and German - if you are interested in getting my articles, send me an email: massi@sustainablecouch.org or check out my blog in English.

Full report as OCTOBER NEWSLETTER OF SUSTAINABLE COUCH

peace begins with a smile

Shelter kids in Mumbai

Gate of India, Mumbai

Massi on the road, Pt. 2: INDIA I AM COMING!

The first part of my world trip ended on 20th December 2012, after spending 15 months travelling in South America.

Many things have happened since then. I had a wonderful time in Italy and Austria, reconnecting to my family and friends in a fantastic way. A part of me thought that maybe it is time to settle down again in Italy after 10 years working and travelling abroad. But after a long reflection it came clear to me that I want to continue my world trip. So I made up my mind and I am ready to be on the road again. This time I will travel "only" 5 months and a half, and in "just" one country, India.

But before leaving, I would like to summarize some of the highlights of my wonderful European Summer 2013:

- presentations "Massi on the road in South America": between March and August I held a total of 7 public presentations and 18  presentations in school classes, in Italy and Austria. This way, I could reach around 700 people with a basic and important invitation to act: identify your dreams and realise them! It was a lot of fun for me to present my Latin-American adventures and I am really satisfied because I could collect 2.275 € for education projects in Sri Lanka :-)

- book: during 6 weeks in July and August I wrote my first book :-) It is a collection of tales from South America and it will be hopefully published in Italian and the beginning of 2014. I really enjoyed the writing process and I would like to thank all the friends and relatives who encouraged me to write!

- friends & music: it was a spectacular summer full of music (festivals in Vienna and in Italy), of swimming (Wörthersee, Danube, sea, swimming pools), of walking (Tirol, Italian Alps) with old and new friends and I really enjoyed it!
I also spent a lot of time with my parents and I am so thankful to them for hosting and taking care of me and sharing wonderful moments with their "prodigal son" ;-)

It would take many more words to describe the amazing months spent in Europe so I created an album with my favourite pics:
Best-of Europe January-August 2013

And now it is really time to say goodbye to family and friends one more time.
I am ready for India!

Goodbye Italy, see you in February 2014!!

Massi on the road again :-)

"Massi on the road" at home: 5 months in Italy/Europe

20.12.2012 - 20.05.2013: Life at home
5 months ago my so long greatest trip came to an end. After 15 months in South America it was time to go back home.
Christmas with my family was simply wonderful and I enjoyed it more than ever.
But the warmth I felt at home was compensated by the extreme cold winter outside: a lot of snow, - 0° temperatures and many many days without sun.
Then the spring finally started, even if the first warmer days only arrived in April. Now I am writing these lines during a cloudy-sunny day, typical of this May so full of rain and only sometimes blessed with warm sun.
Many people ask me what I am doing all time at home, living with my parents and not working, so here are some highlight of the last months:
- January and February: I basically spent a lot of time re-reading my travel diaries, watching my pictures and videos from South America and reflecting on what the trip really meant for me and my life. I also made a few short trips in Torino, Milano and Rome to visit olf friends.
- March: I spent nearly 3 weeks in my beloved Austria. The time in Vienna was extremely intense, I met sooo many old friends and it was simply amazing to see them all again after 2 years! I also concluded the reflection on my trip and I help 4 presentations of "Massi on the road. 15 months in South America" in front of friends and public.
- April and May: back to Italy, I got in contact with many local friends who helped me organise 2 public presentations of my South-America trip. It was a big success, more than 120 people assisted to the presentations and donations were collected for an education project in Sri Lanka. As a result, 5 articles were published in 2 weeks in local newspapers. I so turned into a small celebrity, and I am happy not for my ego but because people understand better why I travel and why I decided to become a "vagabondo", as they defined me in an article ;-)

And now? It's my last week in Italy, preparing my next trip. I will leave next Monday, heading first to Switzerland to visit some relatives, then to Austria, where I will spend all of June, presenting my trip in different Austrian regions and visiting my friend in Vienna.

I am so grateful for the wonderful months spent at home, and at the same time I can't wait to be on the road again. "Massi on the road Pt. 2" will start in September, the destination will be announced soon...

Cold and snowy winter in Italy

Elegant for my first presentation in Italy

Article appeared on a local newspaper