Retreat‘s tipping point
A SPOKESWOMAN for Dr Issac Mathai, founder of the Soukya Holistic Health Centre in Bangalore, has hit back at the criticisms levelled against him by freelance journalist Caroline Phillips in a 2,200-word article in The Times on November 14.
Soukya is known for having celebrity clients, among them the Queen Consort. King Charles also visited the farm for his 71st birthday in 2019.
Last week we carried allegations by Phillips that Mathai traded on his royal connections and was also rather money minded – she said he had told her “your tip of £80 is too low” –“other guests tipped around £300 to £500 per person for only a 14-day stay”.
Mathai’s spokeswoman, Mary Faife, senior manager at Soukya, has written back, pointing out that Phillips had written “good articles” in the Financial Times and in Spears Magazine after staying at the farm on two occasions – February 6-21, 2018, and March 2-24, 2019. Philips “didn’t pay for both her visits” – “as a journalist she offered to write articles in return. She stayed twice, in total for five weeks, all of which was complimentary”.
“It is strange she wrote this article (in The Times), especially after her last email dated 8th December 2019 to us, ‘Even though we hadn’t agreed for me to write anything, I was wrong not to write a piece after my stay at Soukya. Sorry. I was very wound up by Diego’s stories, and was not in the right space to write something positive at that point. But I should simply have relied on my own positive experience of Soukya and not listened to him. Forgive my silence since then… Congratulations on having Prince Charles to stay.’
“She had asked for 17 points, including that of HRH and Ms Emma Thompson, but we abstained from replying to it.
“We guess that she wrote this not so positive article in The Times on 14th November 2022, because she probably was upset with us for not replying to her points in her last email to us.”
“A day before departure, Caroline Phillips asked us about tips in her email dated 23rd March 2019 with Subject: ‘Questions, thanks and more.’
“‘Dear All, Thank you so much for having me to stay. And thank you for the kind present of soap and lemongrass essence. I never know quite what to tip as my real contribution is my writing, which benefits everyone. The Indians tell me they tip therapists around `1,000 per therapist for three weeks. But that seems far too low to me. Anyway, I’ll leave a gesture of thanks, probably £100, and I hope you will also pass on my huge gratitude to my lovely therapists.’
“We naively replied to her on 26th March 2019 as follows, ‘While you were here other guests had tipped around £300 to £500 per person for a 14 days stay. Your tip of £80 is too low especially when you get a free stay and treatments for 21 days. If you change your mind you can still contribute more.’ ”
Tips of “around £300 to £500 per person” do seem high to me. But I am not taking sides. Soukya came into the news after Camilla is said to have stayed there for 10 days after the Queen’s death. It does seem that the relationship between the British freelance journalist and the Indian farm is rather more complicated than
The Times article suggests.