Inhibitions: GONE.

Soooo... many of you know that I'm not really a nudist. In fact, until the now-semi-annual Midnight Naked Swims at the Homestead, I was super-shy-modest and had probably never stripped down for anyone, except for the time I was in the ER for massive kidney stone pain and so out of it that when the nurse said "put on this hospital gown", I was ready to bare all right then and there, Allan Staker in the room or not. (Allan, however, was not delirious, and so, graciously excused himself without catching even a tiny peep.) So I didn't strip then, so that doesn't count at all. And, really, the Midnight Naked Swims ALSO don't count, because it's dark and everyone's a blur and there is a Five-Foot-Radius Rule while in the pool anyway, because really, who wants to see that.

Well, that's all changed.

Today (Saturday), most of the volunteers were in Delhi/Agra at the Taj Mahal, so the remaining troops used the day off to head to Mamallapuram, a beach town about an hour from the village ("beach", as in the Indian Ocean, more specifically the Bay of Bengal. I KNOW. COOL.) We went to the Ideal Beach Resort (that's the name! and it is) to use the pool and beach facilities, etc, and to get nine-dollar-massages. (I KNOW. AWESOME.) Specifically, "aruyevic" (or something like that) massages... I don't know what the name means, but I'll tell you what it turned out to be:

A rub-down.

And... AWESOME.

Oh and by the way, totally nude.

Not nude as in "kindly remove your clothing and get under the sheet on the massage table while I give you a little privacy" massage-nude, but as in "You take clothes off, please-" "-Uh, everything?" "Everything" while she stands and watches - nude. And then sit, naked, in a chair while you get the preliminary hair and face massage. And then crawl up onto the towel-covered massage table, naked, while your masseuse waits with her bowl of oil in hand.

And then... she covers your entire body with oil, and commences the rub down... this is no kneading muscles massage for the most part, this is a rapidly-run-your-hands-from-toe-to-shoulder-in-a-sweeping-motion massage that feels like mini wooden rollers are going over the whole surface, slick with oil, and you can't tell if she has bumpy hands or if oh my goodness, I didn't know my muscles etc. had that many ridges.

Oh and by the way, did I mention it's a full-body massage? As in, FULL BODY. Front and back.

A few thoughts that went through my head during this 40-minute experience:

1) Huh. I'm completely naked and some stranger is rubbing down my entire body.

2) Huh. That isn't phasing me at all. Weird that it's not phasing me at all.

3) Huh. I never knew I was ticklish on my, to be delicate, "bottom". Soles of the feet, yes, but on my rear-cheeks? No. Weird.

4) I should be naked more often.

Man it was great. :)

(And soooo not something I would post on my India blog... hence the deviation from "I'm not blogging on here until the end of August" :)

Esther and I were still pretty oily even after the post-massage towel-down,

but ohhh, so relaxed.