New Delhi, July 4 -- At 51, Geetanjali Kumar was tired of conventional holidays. She had done the trips to Bangkok, the shopping and the spa treatments squeezed between plans. But she was searching for something more from her next vacation. "I wanted to put myself under caregiving hands who could look after me with healthy food and a relaxing routine," she says.

Kumar, based in Mumbai, is a working mother dealing with grief, caregiving fatigue, weight gain and what she describes as the exhaustion of "always running like a machine". A few months ago, instead of going for a beach holiday, she went to Kshemavana, a wellness retreat outside Bengaluru and checked into a private cottage. After an initial consultation, she was given a schedule ...