Ponto de Vista

One achy week, I asked around for a recommendation for a massage. I have been fascinated with the idea of an ayurvedic massage — of hot oil infused with herbs that are purported to heal you inside out — since my mother tried to get her bum thumb cured 😉 Tripti recommended the Sivananda Center, an ashram for yoga and meditation that also offers Kerala massage. On Saturday, right after a very delayed lunch (I don’t recommend this schedule if you get a massage) I went to East of Kailash and was then stripped and put in a langoti (for lack of a better word) and massaged down with hot, hot oil on this bizarre, slippery table that you see. (I snuck a photo when she left me to change back into my clothes). Afterward, I was shut into the little cupboard with the holes you see on the left that is attached to a pressure cooker (Yes. Really. Look!) and with my head sticking out and the rest of me inside the cupboard, I was steamed till I thought my internal organs were nearly cooked. Then I took a shower in the adjoining bathroom.

The massage left me somnabulating, and dying for a nap. It was relaxing but it hadn’t done much for the stiffness in my hip and my shoulders. But then, not much does …