Volunteering for an ayurveda massage, Naintara Maya Oberoi finds it’s nice to feel kneaded.
A Plus Medispa, Amattra Spa’s sister concern, offers several medical, cosmetic and ayurvedic procedures, from a weight-loss program involving the space-age “Vibrogym” technology, to detox body wraps and deep-tissue massages. Downstairs is a full ayurvedic spa, where Dr Vijay Gupta draws up customised plans for clients. For me, she recommended the Vedic Essences treatment, a full-body massage by two therapists using a tightly-wound cloth potli stuffed with herbs.
In the centre of a large, dim, mirror-walled room was my Kerala-ayurveda-style droni massage bed, with the brass bowl for shirodhara (the technique of pouring oil over the “third eye”) hanging above it. My therapists, Shiney and Ushas, nudged me into a little opaque-glassed dressing room with shower, private steam room and loo attached. I emerged in a voluminous bathrobe, disposable undies and blue slippers, and they directed me to a foot soak in warm, rose-petal-strewn water while Ushas lit a brass lamp and chanted a prayer. On the droni bed, I was draped in a large towel, for only as long as it took to ascertain that the temperature, the lights and the music were to my liking. Then it was whisked off, and the two began their synchronised movements, sluicing hot oil over me and massaging it in with long, steady strokes. After ten minutes, I was as oiled up as a Sagar dosa.
Next came the potlis – fat, flat-bottomed poultices of a mixture of herbs heated up in oil and then applied to my skin. Shiney used the potli in various ways – to knead the feet and calves, to rest under the neck and to firmly thump the spine. Aches and pains I wasn’t aware I had began to beg for attention (who knew your palms were so stressed out?), and the hot fomentation technique banished them to the darkness from whence they came. My frazzled nerves began to unwind, and I was swept into a happy daze. It took me a moment to realise it when the hot bundles stopped thunking over the soles of my feet, but luckily this was just so that I could sit up and Shiney could knead my neck and shoulders.
When the massage was over, I floated off the bed and into the steam room, which was so fogged-up I couldn’t see my own feet. The Swan Lake effect lasted about ten minutes, and then it was time for my hot shower. The essentials (Amattra Spaboutique products and others) are laid out on a tray for you to pick from, and if you like any product in particular, you’re welcome to buy it on your way out. Out in the reception area, a cup of steaming herbal tea with a tiny splash of honey helped me acclimatise to the fact that I’d eventually have to leave the spa (and the memory of those potlis) behind.
A Plus Medispa, Plot A, Basant Lok Community Centre, Vasant Vihar (4607-5757). Vedic Essences ayurvedic treatment Rs 3,200.
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