After living in denial for many years, I’ve finally come round. Spas are a necessity of life. There, I’ve said it. If you embrace them wholeheartedly, and guiltlessly, it’s a gift that just keeps giving back. The new Jiva Spa at the Taj Palace, New Delhi, is so good and so well equipped that it makes this maxim rather easy to embrace.
Regulars might recall the hotel’s mezzanine floor, which used to house a gym, a salon and a modest spa, all separate. A spectacular renovation later, the space has transformed into a beautifully tranquil and integrated 13,000 square feet offering. Besides single and couple treatment rooms, the spa also offers a relaxation area with heated loungers. But the experience really begins with the wet area. You can start with the scented steam room or the vitality pool, which points jets of water at you as you snuggle up in the submerged loungers. If things get too hot, there’s an ice dispenser at hand. I promptly became addicted to the experiential shower, which throws either a warm or cold mist of water over you, with lighting to match. It’s a must-try after a bout of steam.
Once I was, indeed, all streamed up, I was led to my treatment room (and one needs to be led, lest one lose one’s way in this labyrinth of wellness). The all-natural treatments have wonderful names, and I opted for the 120min Sushupti or Dreamless Sleep. The spa’s signature massage is the Belana, a dry treatment which is administered with a rolling pin. Not one to be cowed, I asked them to throw in a bit of tender loving belana as well. Asu, my masseuse, was a calming presence, who led me through the hoops effortlessly. I was first basted in a blend of herbs and green gram flour, trussed up like a mummy, and left to my own thoughts. Once the fabric was ripped off (and it had to be ripped off), I was allowed to gently wash off the body pack with some warm milk strewn with rose petals. That’s when the massage proper, with a measured use of hot packs, began. The belana, when it rolled, did not disappoint. I’d like to tell you more, but I’m, quite simply, without words.
The spa offers many membership options, and you’d be unwise not to sign up. There’s also a yoga room and the gym is equipped with the latest from Techno. If all this isn’t enough, there is the Salt Room, which offers a modern and convenient way to experience halotherapy or salt therapy—beloved of the ancients, I was told, who loved to spend time in salt caves for their healing properties. I took a rain check on the salt room. After all, I needed an excuse to come back