Leafing through the exhaustive spa menu at the spanking new Six Senses Spa at the Jaypee Greens Golf & Spa Resort at Greater Noida, two therapies catch my eye. Watsu massage in a pool with lukewarm water, and Colon therapy.

 A two-hour drive from Delhi, this 170-room resort, with an 18-hole golf course attached, was opened two years ago, but the Six Senses spa — with a whopping 90,000 sq-ft space — has just been launched. The entire expanse of Jaypee Greens is about 450 acres, and includes real estate projects, a golf course, a sports complex with an Olympic-size swimming pool, and other state-of-the-art sports facilities. The spa, which has three levels, fits into the natural green environs and is built like a traditional Indian house with spacious courtyards. The colours are muted, with beige and brown being dominant; there are 26 treatment rooms, including three rooms for couples and four hamam treatment rooms. Like most upmarket spas, special elaborate bridal packages are on offer too.

Spa Director Tracey Poole says Six Senses has 28 spas in 14 resorts in 19 countries, with another four coming up. While this is their first in India, three more will come up soon in Mumbai, Pune and Srinagar. There was a natural fit with the huge expanse of Jaypee Greens as “our spas are always open and spacious in design and the attempt is to blend with the traditional architecture of the place”.

The central objective is to make the guest’s journey a “holistic one”, and it is about rejuvenating and energising as much as health and fitness. So the options available — 147 different treatments — have to do both with health and fitness as beauty and rejuvenation through relaxation and detoxification.

Wishing away wrinkles!

My journey begins with a refreshing towel with a distinct fresh orange aroma. In the changing area the fragrance for women is mint, and lemon grass for men. I first opt for “nature’s firming facial” where therapist Mary’s expert touch and strokes, along with the freshly prepared scrub, relax and rehydrate dry cells of the skin. The essential oils and firming sea algae pack she uses help in masking the wrinkles, at least for a few days. The result is so good that I take seriously her advice to keep away from the stunningly beautiful swimming pool at the resort. Fortunately, her deadline is only 24 hours and the next day, a relaxing swim is possible!

The treatment that intrigues me the most, and which I am trying for the first time, is the Watsu therapy — a gentle massaging and stretching therapy carried out in a tepid water Watsu pool! Shyam Goyal, Assistant Manager of the spa, who does the treatment, explains that this is similar to the Japanese Shiatsu massage. “That is a dry, deep tissue massage therapy which uses acupressure points in the body. In Watsu we use acupressure points along your meridian lines or nadis , to relax and rejuvenate.”

A water dance

The round pool filled with warm water is inviting, and the important point to remember is to relax your body totally… let go… as the therapist holds you flat over the water, face up. You don’t have to know swimming to go in for this amazing treatment. As I lay stretched out on the water, Goyal gently stretched and massaged my limbs, and applied acupressure along the nadis . It felt like I was part of a gentle, twirling water dance.

So soothing and relaxing is the treatment that it is difficult to keep the eyes open to the serene and verdant surroundings… the blue sky, lush greenery and chirping of birds come together to weave a magic spell. It is not impossible to doze off — the trick is to let the body go really limp, as you would while back-floating in a swimming pool. I open my eyes to be told, unfortunately, that the session is over! The body certainly feels lighter… some kind of detoxification has taken place under Goyal’s soothing strokes... my limbs feel a little more supple, and there is an unmistakable spring in the step as I make my way back to my room.

Colonic treatment

What promises to be a big draw at this spa is colonic hydrotherapy. Tracey explains that a healthy colon helps keep the body healthy, as this organ contains the largest concentration of bacteria. “This is a naturopathy treatment used to expel waste trapped in the body, and reduces toxicity and gives relief from bloating while stimulating the immune system and allowing improved absorption of nutrients.”

Colonic rejuvenation is a nearly 3-hour package that begins with a detoxifying massage, including a body scrub and mask to release toxins, and is followed by colonic treatment to stimulate bowel activity. “This treatment triggers the body’s natural nervous and muscular systems for smooth bowel movement. And it can benefit a person with chronic constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, skin issues such eczema, and acne, which can be related to colon troubles. Many people depend on pills or other medicines for this, but medicines can have limited results, dehydrate you, and tend to be addictive.”

In this treatment, sterile water is flushed through the large intestine with a special machine, flushed out along with the toxins, and then the body is rehydrated with essential nutrients. The cost is around Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000, depending on the programme chosen.

Slimming blues

Tracey adds that the most popular treatments include massages, detox and weight loss therapies. When I observe that slimming programmes would be the most sought after, she says, “Of course, when you say weight loss, it is not going to be a miracle; Dr Avinash, our ayurvedic expert gives advice on fitness, diet and caring for the body. Dieting and lifestyle are very important components in getting success.”

Ayurveda: A smart science

I find Dr Avinash, who has been with Six Senses for six years, a fascinating person. He reiterates what is apparent; unlike other luxury spas, the treatment rooms, even though elegantly done, are rather sparse and simple. “You won’t find exotic decorations or fancy gadgets here; we give more importance to the products and the treatment,” he says.

So, is he inundated with questions and requests for slimming? “Of course everybody wants to become slim,” he smiles, and responding to the helpless expression on my face, says: “I’ll send you a simple cabbage soup recipe, try it for seven days, follow the instructions, and you’ll lose 3 kg weight in seven days.”

While I await the magic recipe, not wishing to push the issue with him for fear of a week-long existence with cabbage soup, and heaven knows what else, let’s look at the ayurvedic funda he gives. “Today diagnostics have become simple with blood types and other tests, but 1,000 years ago ayurvedic doctors diagnosed by looking at you, asking you some questions and feeling your pulse. By the way, looking at you, reading your posture and noting the way you talk, ask questions, I can tell yours is a fire personality…Pitta dosha.”

Naturally I ask him the attributes of a fire person!

“They are creative people, can manage their sleep, but are difficult customers for salesmen. They hold their money, though spending money is not a problem for them. If you want to buy this sofa, you’ll buy it, but not because somebody is pushing you to buy it. They are not readily forgiving; if somebody hurts them emotionally they find it difficult to forgive. They have long term memory.”

He adds that based on the personality and assessing the body constitution, he prepares wellness charts for clients — what food is good for them, what colours they should wear, what aroma suits them. He also has prepared a detox weight-loss spa menu. “Ayurveda never talked about proteins, carbohydrates or fat; it talked about 6 tastes and 10 pairs or 20 gunas (qualities) — sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent.”

While sweet fruits suit one type, green leafy vegetables suit another, extra salt and sourness, or garlic, pepper and chilli would harm others, and so on.

But the “beauty as well as challenge” of Ayurveda is that it motivates a person to give up what is not good for her, but in stages. “If I tell you suddenly sour foods are not good for you, so give them up immediately, you won’t or can’t do it. But if I say include sour stuff in your diet, but for six weeks I will add additional bitter foods to balance the sourness, you try it and find a difference, you will be motivated to lessen it or give it up totally.”

Similarly if red meat is not good for someone, the advice would be to have it for lunch and not dinner, take it grilled and not fried. “So you see, Ayurveda is a smart science; it’s not about being vegetarian. If I have guests from Russia, I can’t ask them to eat just tomatoes and potatoes; but I can ask them to take more fish and chicken rather than mutton,” adds Dr Avinash.

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