Angels And Demons: First Look

I enjoyed this sunday...Mostly because i watched the "much awaited " Ron Howard's Angels And Demons. Well first thing first , the movie didn't  justify with the original storyline. Many important scenes and incidents have been altered or removed. But the most imprtant thing is that this time the movie doesnot go head on head with catholic faiths and beliefs. Instead it's trilling stroy with huge entanglement of Papal History. Sacrilegious debunking of the New Testament is one thing which has been inherited from Dan Brown’s last novel. "Ah yes, Pope Pius IX's great castration," notes Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) as he's escorted through a gallery of officially mutilated statues. So begins the plot, which has this art-history boffin summoned by Vatican envoys in the midst of a grave succession crisis aka the Papal Conclave. The old pope is dead (murdered actually), and his four most likely replacements have been kidnapped and locked up somewhere underground. Meanwhile, a member of the Illuminati – feared age-old devotees of scientific truth – has gone to the considerable trouble of stealing a canister of explosive anti-matter from CERN in Geneva-Franco Border. Wherever it's been stashed, this will blow up at midnight, and take the Vatican with it. He is quickly embroiled in a race against time to find the four missing clerics before they are each branded with one of the elements – Earth, Air, Fire, Water – and subjected to a bespoke demise: the first corpse turns up stuffed with soil…the second one dies on St Peter’s Basil coz of puncture in the lungs…The third one is burned alive inside Bernini’s Chapel….But heroically Langdon  saves the fourth cardinal. Now i won’t disclose the Climax of the story – which is rather sudden and action filled.

But Talking about the historical facts and conclusions spread throughout the story – one thing is very clearly laid out – the involvement of renaissance artists in building the elegance of “Baroque” Vatican city,The center of Christendom and also conspiring against monopoly of Roman Catholic Church. I don’t remember any movie giving so detailed analysis of renaissance artists like Bernini, Michelangelo ,Galileo . While it’s important that most of these great minds used to work exclusively for the holy Church but they were also part of the secret organizations to promote their modern manifesto which challenges the atrocity,old beliefs and rules of the church. I think, controversies apart, the movie is kind of building awareness about that golden era of renaissance which started the propulsion of modern science and modern culture and society as whole.

River Retreat

Ganges river and Bay of Bengal are really important to my people.My home is at the southernmost point of Calcutta.This is the place where river meets the ocean.The terrain is mostly plain and moist hugged by lots of coconut and “supari” trees.It’s a beautiful place. Though Calcutta is a modern metropolis which is bustling with people my place , being the southern tip is relatively calm and restful. Today i would be sharing a wonderful travel destination which is around 1 hour drive from my home. The place is called Raichak and it’s where Ganga starts final leg of her grand journey. The river starts from the mountains of north india and spans the whole indian plain before meeting bay of bengal at the outskirts of calcutta.Ganga becomes so wide in raichak that big cargo ships and passenger ships use it as a transition route.If you start your journey from kolkata central try follwing the signboards for Ffort Radisson hotel, which meant taking a right turn at sarisa off the Diamond Harbour Road and then a left again onto the Raipur-Nurpur connector. The ffort radisson nestles behind a huge black gate to the left, some five minutes along.Just drive few more minutes and you will see the entrance for Gangakutir- Ambuja Realty’s Upmarket resort at raichak. The first thing you will notice as you enter the gate is a vista of the river over lily pond in full bloom. You look left and see a succession of tiled building connected to each other. As you will cross the centerway you will be able to see the infinity pool of constantly flowing water, which by a cunning trick of design appears to be seamlessly integrated with the river.You will find it hard to look away from this, but if you do you will be able to see the gracious buildings in wood and tiles with slopping roofs and wide varendas.The resort has been designed by some sri lankan designer and executed by both sri lankan and bengali workers.The tiny resort has been perfectly proportined- it has just 16 rooms in total and a suite. They used rural idioms and artifacts to decorate the rooms.That is really appreciable and it looks quite sophisticated. As i said the river is very wide at this point and this inlet chanel is the route for sea going ships. Small wooden boats try to catch fish throughout the day- somehow watching these activities throughout the day and evening, lying low in the pool with a drink is very relaxing. The small boats belong to fishermen who live in a nearby village. You can see small boats- both with sails and diesel powered engines with small lanterns on the bamboo sticks. If you wish you can hire one of these boats and can enjoy the river waves, although sometimes the river becomes violent during high tides.

Ganga Kutir positions itselfs as a place to rest and unwind and it lives up to that promise , beautifully.As it is the part of the same setup as that of radisson u can use it’s facilities like the radisson’s spa. If you have time and energy u can explore further and can visit bakkali,sunderbans,henry island and jambudwipa.

The food at ganga kutir is extremely good.The menu is short but well chosen and carefully prepared. There’s one problem though – the resto is open for fixed hours. So that means if you have spent too much time in pool and are late for lunch or dinner you will have to skip that altogether.However the resort staff is courteous enough to prepare and rustle up some light snacks for you.The rooms are quite spacious and as i mentioned tastefully done.Somehow i feel that they designed all the rooms to showcase the river- Big Bay windows(i plan to steal the idea for my own home), verandas with deck chairs overlooking the ganga from every room. Make sure you are sharing the room with someone you are pretty comfortable with , as the glassed-in bathrooms are  a little intimate(you can do lot of naughty things in there..trust me!).It’s more like a romatic gateway- take your loved one out and “bond” in a peaceful seclusion.- a rare commodity in our society of nosy people. Walk by the river at night or sit in the gazebo and count the stars and sip fine single malts.However don’t forget the insect repellent as the lap of nature in rural bengal usually includes a few creepy crawlies.Also wear covered shoes if you are walking by the river during night time.Ganga kutir’s best features are it’s ambience and setting, two things produced by intelligence and taste, and well worth the money.