I’M lying on my back with a large round rock beneath my neck, several stones detailing the line of my backbone and eight tiny pebbles tucked like cotton balls between my toes.

No, this is no prehistoric makeover. I'm being prepared for a hot stone massage treatment at the Wellness Clinic in Bangalore, a part of Souky International Holistic Health Centre, run by the reputed homoeopath and holistic medicine practitioner Dr Issac Mathai and nutritionist Suja Mathai. Dr Mathai recommends this alternative healing therapy to some of his patients depending on their
ailments and physical condition; his most

famous patient has been the redusive member of the British royal family, Sarah Ferguson. The treatment in store for me will be a purely

relaxing and rejuvenating programme, guaranteed to revitalise and freshen me up. I think of all the hot saunas I've had in the past and feel a shiver run up my spine. But Dr Roopa B,Ayurvedic doctor and massage therapist, who is toasting the smooth- surfaced stones upto 85°C in an oven, assures me, "Don't worry, you'll enjoy it". People believe that drinking and bathing in natural spring water that's high in mineral content improves their health. People go to Arizona and California, US and even Iceland to take a dip in the healing waters of the hot springs, wallow in mineral- rich mud baths or lie on the basalt volcanic stones.