Ayurvedic Spa: Beauty and Beyond

I’m lying on a slab of dark wood, dangerously close to nude. The room is small, dimly lit and smells and sounds utterly relaxing. Sesame and sandalwood scented waves swoosh around the room and replace the smoggy summer city that has been enclosing me all day. My dreamy disorientation increases as a kind, slow moving Indian woman enters the room and begins to rub circular motions onto my body with hot oils.

Like yoga ten years ago, Ayurveda is starting to take hold in pockets of open minded America. The capitalist world, it appears, has tremendous affinity for the more marketable aspects of our ancient traditions; Americans flocked to yoga classes when they discovered the slimming effects, and are beginning to frequent “Ayurvedic Spas” for glowing skin and improved circulation.

Jaanvi Shah, co-owner of the Roop Ayurvedic Center in Hoboken, NJ, has seen the growing interest in her customers, 95% of whom are non-Indian. “Many people come in for the massages and facials and know nothing about Ayurveda. Once they come here, they never go anywhere else.” Jaanvi believes that the satisfying treatments create a loyalty for Ayurveda among those customers; the all natural ingredients leave customers with smooth, radiant skin without any of the side effects that more chemical processes sometimes cause.

Dr. Anil Gandhi, Jaanvi’s partner, belongs to generations of Ayurvedic practitioners and has a bachelor’s degree in herbal systems of medicine for the Open University for Alternative Medicines chartered by the Kolkata-based Indian Board of Alternative Medicines.  Gandhi makes his own medicines, oils and lotions, and occasionally supplements his book learning with ventures into the Indian forest to learn from traditional medicine men.

Shah came across Gandhi when she was searching for a cure for her severe acne. Frustrated by the side effects of allopathic medicines, she found that Ayurvedic facials and oils healed her skin permanently and encouraged Dr. Gandhi to open a spa as a way to reach out to western customers.

The options will seem familiar to regular spa goers: Massages to ease tension, cellulite reduction and therapies to increase joint movement are offered, along with detoxifying herbal steam baths and facials that claim to smooth the skin. Treatments are priced upward of $90.

The most popular treatment at Roop Spa is Abhyanga Snana, described as a “stimulating treatment that increases blood circulation, which in turn encourages quick removal of metabolic wastes”. The treatment includes a 60 minute oil massage, followed by a 15 minute eucalyptus stream bath, followed by an herbal scrub. This treatment aims to improve skin tone and digestion and also has an energizing effect.

The complete list of services includes about a dozen different massages, each designed for slightly different results including exfoliated skin, joint and muscle relief and overall relaxation.

Six different facials have been chosen to help patients suffering from problems such as dull skin, acne, scars and oiliness. All the treatments are authentically Ayurvedic and are based on the methods as they have been performed in India for millennia.

While about 50 percent of Roop Ayurvedic Spa customers are simply looking for an alternative to their usual luxury day spa treatments, many also come seeking solutions to problems such as eczema, acne and high blood pressure. The spa has the capacity to satisfy both sets of customers.

Other Ayurvedic spas around the country also offer similar treatments.  The well-known Raj Ayurvedic Health Spa in Iowa, for instance, offers both day spa services and longer, more comprehensive treatments. The most popular is the Royal Beauty Treatment, which is similar to Abhyanga Snana, but also includes a milk bath and mud treatment.

Raj Spa’s longer services include detox and diet changes. Many Ayurvedic practitioners believe skin and hair problems are caused by internal problems, and the Raj Spa promises to nurture customer’s radiance from within.

Marketing Ayurveda by highlighting the luxurious spa treatments and beautification has irked some practitioners. Critics point out that in the United States, there is little regulation of Ayurvedic practitioners and there are vast differences between treatments that may go by the same name.

Ayurveda stresses the use of all natural herbs and oils. This natural appeal has caught hold already; Aveda, a popular brand of hair and body products sold in 8,000 salons across the country, is based on Ayurveda, though most customers probably don’t realize the history and inspiration,

If Ayurveda in America follows the path of yoga, which eventually introduced practitioners to meditation, spagoers will soon begin to learn the medicinal benefits of Ayurveda, which go beyond beautification.

After my vigorous sweat and thorough scrub, my skin feels soft and glowing, my body moves freely and efficiently, and I sleep like a baby. I selfishly hope that the Ayurvedic Spa trend continues to grow so that I can continue receiving luxurious treatments.

Originally published in The Indian American, January-February 2007

Q & A Shahed Amanullah: A Muslim with a View

For the past five years, Shahed Amanullah has been working to create an open dialogue within the Muslim community. Educated at Georgetown University and University of California at Berkeley, and brought up in California by “proud Indian” parents, Amanullah is the brains behind altmuslim.com, a website that is not afraid to ask difficult questions.

An engineering project manager by profession, the Austin-based Amanullah is a consultant for the World Bank.  Altmuslim.com has been active for five years, and Amanullah sees it growing consistently by about 20 percent every year.  Today, it offers opinion, commentary, features and podcasts on a variety of subjects ranging from the arts and community issues to politics and conflict.

While Amanullah’s parents are not devout Muslims, Shahed is active in the Muslim community and considers himself to be very religious. He developed his religious identity in college, during a time of self reflection and contemplation about his “dual culture”, an angst common in the second generation.

“In college I was active in all the Indian clubs and in all the Muslim clubs as well,” he says, and he continues to play an active role in both communities.

In an interview, Amanullah speaks about some of the troubling questions plaguing the Muslim community and explains how his website is influenced by his unique position as an Indian, a Muslim and an American.

Excerpts:

What was your motivation for starting altmuslim.com?

After 9/11, Islam and Muslims were splattered on the front pages, but there wasn’t a real coherent message coming back from the Muslim community, a message that took extremism very seriously and wasn’t simply apologetic for it. The website was something that I had been thinking about for a while, but 9/11 really made it feel necessary. I wanted to create a voice that was self critical but proud. That is what got me started. There were so many people who fell to two extreme sides, either being completely apologetic and whitewashing it all or trashing the extremists. There was an intellectually honest path that I thought was lacking.

How has your Indian background influenced your work?

I was born here, but my parents are both proud Indians. I just got back from a visit to India. I think the Indian experience actually can contribute to this discourse. A lot of Muslims who come from a Muslim majority community are not used living in a pluralistic society. That’s part of the problem. They come to a place like America and they isolate themselves because they’re just not used to it. I think the Indian Muslim experience is unique among immigrant Muslim populations because we come from a country that is pluralistic. Yes, it might have its sectarian problems, but by and large it has learned how to deal with religious differences peacefully. I think that experience is what is lacking in a lot of Muslim circles today in American and in the west. In Europe you have huge problems of Muslims isolating themselves because they just can’t deal with a secular or multi-cultural or multi-religious society. I think Indian Muslims have, and that’s the part I’d like to bring forward to this from an Indian perspective.

And your American upbringing?

One of the great things about American culture is that Americans have a unique ability to be able to self criticize in ways that a lot of other people can’t. It is one thing that second generation immigrants, and I think Indians in particular, can do that their parent’s generation can’t. My parents are supportive of me, and they say they’re glad I’m doing what I’m doing but that there is no way they could have done that. It’s just not in them to be able to do that. They’re not thick skinned in that way. I think the American culture in me can take it.

What do you wish to accomplish with this website?

I do consider myself very rooted in the Muslim community; I regard myself as a mainstream Muslim. I don’t consider myself peripheral in any way. That’s something I want to accomplish with this website, to show that it’s okay for this kind of criticism to come from the heart of a community, from the inside. I’m not just targeting the things that are wrong with the Muslim community. I’m also [focusing on] people who are not Muslims. And I’ve always tried to put my money where my mouth is. I always try to tell Muslims to get involved in the community around them, and I try to do that myself. I don’t tell them to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself.

Do you feel that the Muslim community is alienated from the mainstream?

In every community, there are a few who are alienated to the point where they have no loyalty to their country of residence.  Muslims are no exception, although I think that number is exceedingly small. In Europe, for example, Muslims have had a much harder time blending in and therefore their loyalty to Europe is compromised. Like most Americans, Muslims in the US had a renewed sense of commitment to this country; especially among those who were born here (this segment now makes up the majority of Muslims in America).  I think most Muslims would say that Islam tells them to respect any country that provides so many benefits and freedoms. It would be ungrateful to treat it otherwise. Of course, being Muslim means there is an affinity and concern for Muslims around the world.  But I can think of no Muslim who would be more loyal to a foreign country than the US.

Even in the Post 9/11 World?

There are two possible reactions to a post-9/11 America:  withdraw into a close-knit cultural community, or expand efforts to reach out to other Americans.  At a leadership level, Muslims have pursued the latter vigorously, although there are some communities that have pulled back for fear of prejudice.  There is much more work to be done, however, to interact with others.

How do you account for Islamic Extremism?

I subscribe to the thesis of Prof. Robert Pape, whose book “Dying to Win” cited territorial conflict, rather than religion, as a primary driver of suicide bombing.  It just so happens that a lot of these territorial conflicts are happening in Muslim countries (a notable exception being Sri Lanka, where the Tamil Tigers have used a large number of suicide attacks.)  Of course, religion can play a role in attempting to alleviate guilt for the crime (for example, the handlers of suicide bombers go to great lengths to convince them of the divine sanction for their actions), but the vast majority of Muslims scholars remain opposed to such attacks.

One of the reasons extremism is a problem in the Muslim world is because the interpretation of Islam has been democratized (there is no central authority to confer legitimacy to any one version of Islam).  This can be a good thing, in that it allows people to modify their application of Islam per the needs of people in different areas of the world, but it can also be bad in that it allows people the theological room to interpret Islam in an exclusivist, extremist way. 

The political strife of the Islamic world, unfortunately, provides a climate in which extremist ideologies thrive.  And as 9/11 showed us, it only takes a few of these to cause immense damage if they were to take their extremist thought far enough.

What has been the reaction to your Website?

About half of the visitors are Americans or Westerners who are just curious about what the Muslim voice in the Western light is. Most of the traffic comes from people who are making random Google searches and find one of our articles and then just kind of poke around. Because we publish so many different issues we cover a wide variety of topics. The other half is immigrant and second generation Muslims, more second generation than not.

The website is primarily geared towards the West; however, I’m trying to branch out a little bit. I’m recruiting journalists from the rest of the world and just hired a columnist from India. One thing that I’m very sensitive about doing, I don’t want to talk down to the East from the West. It would be presumptuous to feel like I understand exactly what’s going on on the ground in those countries.

Why do you feel the need for such a public forum to discuss issues that affect the Muslim community?

I think it’s really healthy for Muslims to have their internal discourse clearly visible to everyone else, to show them that we’re actually dealing with the problems in our community. It’s valuable for Muslims and it’s valuable for non-Muslims. We need to publicize the very fact that this discourse is going on. It can’t happen behind closed doors for very long without dying for lack of other voices coming in.

How have your parents reacted to altmuslim.com?

Both my mother and father are both very, very supportive of me. My mom works for the State Department, so she sees on a daily basis how the image of Muslims and the image of immigrants affect US policies. She sees a need to argue the case that we are moderate, we belong here, and we’re contributing members of society. My dad is a real Indian patriot; he retired and went back to India. And he just loves the fact that I’m pushing the envelope, pushing the boundaries. He’s really reveling in it.

During your visit to India, did you observe an open debate on social issues?

Indian society can be very honor based. If you’re going to discuss a sensitive issue, you might as well be accusing them of being guilty of it. It’s a shame. I think all communities could benefit from shining a light on their community. India is trying to grapple with a lot of issue that are very, very serious, like women’s issues, minority issues, and the Dalit community. But it’s hard for them to have a discourse about it without really touching on nerves. When I was there, I was thinking that in America we can have an all-out discussion on race and people have big differences of opinion, but nobody gets offended about it. There it’s still very, very sensitive, even today, even decades after starting to talk about those issues; you really have to tiptoe around them.

Originally published in The Indian American, March-April 2007

nobody does it better, profile of Sreenath Sreenivasan

Sreenath Sreenivasan, the young and tireless cofounder of the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA), seems to have found more than 24 hours in the day.  Only 36, he simultaneously built up careers as a successful Technology Reporter and as a Journalism Professor at Columbia University, all while growing SAJA from a casual meet-up with 18 members to a powerful  institution that brings together over 1000 South Asian journalists from across the US and Canada.

Sreenivasan, or Sree as he is popularly known, is Dean of Student Affairs at Columbia, interacting with over 400 students throughout their life cycle at the University and leading a team to guide them and oversee their journey from admissions to career services.  He previously worked as Dean of Students, from 2005-2007, and served for 10 years as the faculty advisor to Columbia’s Society of Professional Journalists.  In 2004, he was named by Newsweek magazine as one of the 20 most influential South Asians in America.   In 2007, India Abroad named him one of the 50 most influential Indians in America.

While he considers himself a “print guy”, who subscribes to two newspapers and five magazines, Sree is established as an expert in New Media.  In addition to teaching classes on the use of New Media/Web publishing, Sree regularly covers technology and gadgets for WNBC and freelances for a variety of newspapers and magazines on new media issues.  New media was a natural way, says Sree, “to combine my loves of written, video, text, audio, all of that stuff.”

Sreenivasan’s affable manner and easy smile work well on camera, and he counts his ability to speak about these topics in “English, rather than “technologese’” with helping the audience connect with him.    Perhaps his audience relates to his love of print as well;  Sreenivasan speaks  reverentially of the “magic of the print byline” and loves both reading and being published in print publications.  That someone who sees the magic in newspapers can feel so much enthusiasm for the newest technologies gives hope to Luddite viewers that these technologies may be accessible and useful to their lives as well.

Sreenivasan’s love of technology is shared by his wife as well; Roopa Unnikrishnan, a strategy consultant and Rhodes scholar, is the author of a blog documenting “a working mom’s food adventure’s in and out of the kitchen.”  His two young twins, Durga and Krishna, are likely to join the virtual world one day as well.

Sreenivasan knew early that he wanted to be a journalist, but his parents fought him because “no Indian parent wants their child to be a journalist”.  Even today, he often, “2 or 3 times a month”, counsels Indian parents of future journalists on why this is a worthy career, and appeals to them that it’s “okay for your kid to want to be a journalist.”

A child of a diplomat, Sreenivasan spent his youth hopping from continent to continent.  His father was in the Indian Foreign Service and took his family all around the world, spending time in Moscow, Tokyo, Fiji, Bhutan and the United States.  Sreenivasan’s decision to pursue an undergraduate degree in India was a means of creating some distance from his family, of forging his own path and pursuing journalism wholeheartedly.  Sreenivasan speaks fondly of his time there; he “really enjoyed it, it was great to be in India.”

Sreenivasan always wanted to go to Columbia’s School of Journalism for a Master’s degree, although he had some success as a neophyte journalist in India, writing for major Indian newspapers.   “My plan was, if I didn’t get in to Columbia, I would keep working.  Somehow, I got in.”

He moved to New York City and never left.  After receiving his Master’s in journalism, he stepped right into the faculty.  Sreenivasan has spent 15 years at Columbia, in “the same job, with the same email address and the same phone number.”  While “fidgety” by nature, his youth spent jumping from nation to nation had exhausted his wanderlust, and Sreenivasan was ready and delighted to plant roots in New York City.

While Sreenivasan’s email address may have remained the same, the world around him has transformed dramatically since 1993, and his job has grown and adapted.  From the massive changes in communication fashioned by the internet boom, to India’s growing status as an emerging world power, to the entrance into the US work force of millions of second generation Indians with dreams very different from their immigrant parents, Sreenivasan has been eagerly and enthusiastically embracing the changing world.  He is always thrilled to find new uses for the new technologies, to closely monitor India’s progress and subsequent representation in the mainstream news media, and to connect and mentor the newest generation of working Indian Americans.

For Sreenivasan, there is no such thing as a typical day.   “Every day is so different” he says enthusiastically, and a quick glance at his frenetic online calendar, mashed with seemingly overlapping meetings, phone calls and broadcasts, verifies the controlled chaos.  “I love that everyday is so different.  It’s part of the reason that I stayed in the same job for 15 years.”

For example, on a day in early April, Sreenivasan woke at 4:30am to be at WNBC at 6:20am for his technology broadcast.  After some meetings and debriefings there, he came home and took advantage of his brief respite to spend quality time with his young twins, Durga and Krishna.  The next few hours consisted of meeting after meeting at Columbia, with Sreenivasan still settling into the varied responsibilities of his new position as Dean of Student Affairs.   Somewhere in there, he found time to post several items to SAJAforum, a blog that posts tidbits of news and media related to South Asians, with room for endless comments.  In the afternoon, he administered a “Virtual Open House” for students admitted to Columbia’s School of Journalism who couldn’t make it to New York to attend the recent Open House weekend.

The “Virtual Open House” is a quintessential Sreenivasan creation; he has harnessed the power of the internet to create on opportunity for people who would otherwise have missed out.  Sreenivasan thrives on using technology to expand opportunities.  He is always looking for ways to “use technology to reach out to people, to expand what they can do, and to bring people together. Instead of having an event for 40 people, I’d rather use technology to take that event to a global scale.”

Sreenivasan’s expertise of all things virtual and technological came about organically; he always loved writing letters, and a transition from the familiar blue Indian aerogrmas (in which the letter is its own envelope and stamp, “an amazing technology!” he gushes ) to email felt seamless and natural.  When SAJA began in 1995, well before most people were regularly using the internet, Sreenivasan comfortably created a website and liberally used email to spread the word.

With SAJA now in the hands of “a great SAJA team”, Sreenivasan is able to enjoy watching it grow and can pick and choose his role there.  Sreenivasan stays involved in fundraising activities, continues passing on his knowledge through frequent seminars and workshops, and writes and edits the blog SAJAforum.

Sreenivasan is an inspiration to stay engaged and to keep moving.   His many roles and multitude of jobs seem to energize him, rather than drain him, and he professes deep appreciation for his current life. “I just love what I do.”  Says Sreenivasan.  “I’m excited to wake up in the morning.”

Originally published in The Indian American, May-June 2008