Spas and Western Style health hotels & resorts are a recent phenomenon in India. In the good old days, if you wanted steam, all you had to do was step out into India’s baking summers and that cellulite would run for cover. It was cheap and effective. There was also a centuries-old tradition of ayurveda, practised at Hindu ashrams (monastic retreats), offering holistic, life-enhancing treatments including yoga techniques. Today, packaged contortion, aromatic rubs, aura imaging and herbal body pummelling are available in abundance. And traditional ayurvedic health resorts are aplenty in the south where they flourish as an authentic cottage industry in the state of Kerala.