MID-DAY BREAK
My job has many perks and quite naturally I love what I do and I do what I love. Here’s one of the many treats that I get to indulge in.
It’s been more than decade of being a beauty writer/commentator, yet I can’t help a feeling of perfect bliss when in my calendar I try to squeeze in just another spa visit, while my husband, well, tries to fit in a sales meeting. I almost gloat. I can’t deny that I do feel a vicarious pleasure. I mean who wouldn’t if your “work” involved experiencing Cleopatra’s beauty ritual?
However, the numerous indulgent experiences make you critical of treatments and it takes a real expert and technique to win the point. Over the years, I have grown to like dry massages over oil massages; hence in most spas my choice is limited. I have also realised that only few therapists are confident about the dry treatment. So when I visit a time-tested place like Asian Roots, with an extensive menu, I ask for the rare – Shiatsu massage. It is a treatment that not many see as an indulgence and most spas don’t even have it on their menu. This is a Japanese massage technique that was developed from Chinese medicinal therapies. Though, it was initially meant to be a therapeutic treatment, over the years it has evolved into a mere indulgence. However, even as an indulgence, it does retain some of its essential healing quality.
My therapist, Anna, at Asian Roots was of course, more inclined to make the session as luxurious as possible. However, when she realised that my interest was in actually unclogging my energy channels and releasing knots, she got to work with her deft fingers and with the appropriate pressure. The 60-minute long session was extremely painful but my body needed that and post treatment, I felt much lighter and calmer – that’s what matters. Having seen the pain I went through, Anna was very sweet to prepare a milk bath with rose petals for me. This gorgeous soak dissolved all pain and stress and left me feeling well pampered and relaxed.
My this visit to Asian Roots was after a gap of four years but the experience has now tempted me enough to go back at least once a month. From basics to the most high tech or fanciful, this place has got things absolutely right. After all, it’s not for nothing that for years they remain the preferred choice of so many.
