Our meeting with the Pope Benedict XVI was held on 15th November 2006 at about 12 noon. It was a part of the celebration of our 25th Wedding Anniversary.(see photos below).

Dr. Leo Rebello's message of 1st December (which is celebrated as World AIDS Day) appearing in the website as a companion piece.

I also presented Pope Benedict my four books :
(a) "AIDS and Alternative Medicine",
(b) "Holistic Healing in Tropical Diseases",
(c) "Nature Cure and Yoga Therapy" and
(d) "Travesty of Life".

"Travesty of Life" is an anthology of 50 of my best poems nominated for Nobel in Literature.

After the visit to Rome (three days), we visited Pisa, Florence (both in one day), Venice (one day), by night train to Nice (one day), by luxury bus to Marseille (one day) - by ship to Le Frioul island, by Toy Train to majestic Notre Dame de la Garde (all this in Marseille).

Thence, via Ales, to Besseges (one day), after that to Lourdes (via Nimes and Tolouse/one night and day). It was raining heavily in Lourdes so the hotel in which we stayed provided us with a big umbrella free. From there we proceeded to St. Jean de Luz (two days). While in St. Jean de Luz we visited St. Sebastian in Spain, beautiful Biarritz (known as Basque Country and ate delicious Basque food). From there we went to Paris by fast train called the TGV. We were in Paris for two days. It was gloomy due to dark clouds and rain. Nevertheless we visited all famous places in Paris. Our last halt was Milan (two days).

In Paris we met Dr. Mona Gamal El-Dine (a film director). We reached her place on 23 Nov night and left on 25 Nov morning. 24 Nov was her adopted son Horus' 6th birthday and she had invited some guests at her place for dinner, in which we too participated. We had lengthy discussions on diverse topics during dinner. I explained the principles of natural medicine, we discussed world peace, sang and ate lavishly.

Thanks to good friends like Josef Hasslberger, Jean-Marie Breton, our stay in Rome, Besseges, St. Jean de Luz and Paris was complimentary. At other places, because of non-season, getting hotels was easy.

I am a regular traveller. I have delivered over 10,000 lectures in 63 countries. But for my wife Kashmira, this was her first trip to Europe. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience - TGV (which runs at about 300 kms per hour speed), Cisalpino Express (confortable night train), Malpensa Express, speed boat ride, luxury bus ride, toy train, good hotels and delicious local food, Eiffel Tower (the 3rd floor) and icing on the cake was First Class ride on Alitalia from Milan to Bombay because of upgrade.