Aryawarta Holiday Village

Tags

aryawarta, dapoli, India, maharashtra, travel

This past weekend some work took me to Dapoli. I stayed at Aryawarta Holiday Village, a hotel with independent cottages.

The hotel is beautiful in spite of its simplicity, or maybe because of it since it has a homely feel to it. There are different bungalows with 2/3/4 BHK. While each bungalow is named after a flower; there are a few exceptions like Atharva. I stayed in Lily which is right at the start of the whole village.

Getting there: The roads leading up to the hotel are in terrible condition. The hotel should really take some measures for at least leveling the ground, if not making a proper tar/ cement road. While proper markers are found everywhere as soon as you draw near to Dapoli, the main hotel is remotely located. It is a 5 minute drive from Dapoli ST stand. Also, once you reach the hotel you will find a lot of space wasted where there could have been lawns & ornamental plants & flowers. The bare rocks & uneven ground just hurts the eye. So much of wasted opportunity.

Housekeeping: The housekeeping is excellent. Everything was spic & span when I arrived. The ACs worked, as did all the electrical points. The boiler provided hot water the next morning when the temperatures had dropped. The cottages also have electric kettles where you can make your own tea or coffee but there is no gas connection for cooking food. The toilets were clean which is always the most important thing in any hotel in my opinion. I just cannot stand a clogged/ without flush/ without tissues toilet.

Lily: The cottage has a nice homely feel to it. My room was sufficiently large. The kitchen opened into the living room. The bedroom had french windows opening onto a balcony. My only complaint was that there were no ceiling fans! They had mounted fans everywhere but nothing can replace a ceiling fan. It was too cold with the AC switched on & too stuffy without it since the fans were blowing air on the adjacent walls rather than me! 😦

Food: The food was eatable. I wouldn’t call it delicious or anything but it was well cooked & tasted OK. Only the morning tea is provided in the room. For all the other meals you have to come to the dining area to the buffet. There is no non – veg which might be a big negative for all the meat eaters. The food is included in the tariff.

The place is very peaceful & you are completely cut off from the constant din of the city. It was very rejuvenating to spend a day there & I would definitely love to visit the hotel again. It is worth every penny spent.

Aryawarta Holiday Inn:

www.aryawarta.co.in

Brahmanwadi, Taluka Dapoli

District – Ratnagiri,

PIN – 415712, Maharashtra, INDIA

Tel : 02358 – 280198,02358 – 283088, 07276728121, 9423989856, 9423987989

Email: contactus@aryawarta.com 

 

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The Fault in our Stars by John Green

Tags

Augustus Waters, Cancer, Hazel Grace Lancaster, John Green, The Fault in our Stars

The Fault In Our Stars is the story of a teenage girl, Hazel Grace Lancaster, who prefers staying at home and watches marathons of America’s Top Model. However, her life takes a drastic turn when she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Hazel begins attending a support group for young cancer patients and survivors. She is cynical about the whole thing, but then she meets Augustus Waters, who is in remission at a support group for kids with cancer. This is when her life begins to change for the better.

-Amazon

For many days now I had been hearing great things about this book but I avoided reading it. I just wasn’t in the mood for a cancer story. But I finally bought a copy on the train while going to office & started reading immediately.

What I liked:

• It isn’t the usual sob story. It is a story which has cynicism, dark humour, hope,faith, optimism instead of page after page of depression. Hazel’s cynicism was a big plus for me.
• The first night Gus drops Hazel home…that conversation is oh so romantic! ❤
• Isaac. Through him John Green writes a dire truth. The chances of a relation surviving something like cancer are extremely less. Especially if the other person has any options left for him/ her. No matter how harsh this sounds it’s a sad fact 😦 Though I did cheer when Gus & Isaac bombarded Isaac’s girlfriend’s car with eggs! 😉
• The Imperial Affliction, the ending of the novel made me restless without even reading it from cover to cover.
• Caroline Mathers. Another harsh truth covered by the author. Not all those who are ill are poor, long suffering creatures. Some turn pretty nasty towards their end. It is as if their disease changes them. While a majority of their friends & society will only see their good side, the family has to tolerate their nastiness with no chance to complain since they might end up looking horrid in the end.
• The book is just filled with quotable quotes 🙂
• Hazel’s & Gus’s parents were really great & supporting. Not every sick child is blessed with such parents.

What I didn’t like:

• Nothing much to mention here. Everything was just great in this novel.

Every person should read this novel to understand what cancer does to a person, how it alters a person & affects his family & his daily life. A must read at least once in your life time. I loved that two people on the verge of death found something as beautiful as love which eludes most for most of their lifetimes.

A 5/5 from me.

The Secret Garden: Frances Hodgson Burnett (Book & Movie)

Tags

books, Frances Hodgson Burnett, movies, The Secret Garden

While rearranging my books I came across an almost ancient copy of The Secret Garden which my Dad had bought for me when I was still in school. It was lying there, unopened. I sat down to read it & simultaneously started downloading the movie based on the book.

The book:

When Mary Lennox, a spoilt and obstinate girl whose parents have died of cholera, is sent from India to England, she becomes inescapably drawn into the secrets of Misselthwaite Manor and its inhabitants. What is the strange crying she hears in the night? Who is the boy that talks with the birds? And where is the key to the forbidden garden that was sealed up ten years ago?

– Amazon

I called myself all sorts of fools for ignoring this book for so long. It is the sort of book you just fall in love with.

Beautifully written, the descriptions of the moors, the flowers, the gardens, the petulant Mary & Colin, Dickon & all his wonderful animals, the Robin, Martha & her mother, each & every character is perfectly written. I loved Mary & Dickon’s friendship & Dickon’s bonding with the animals. There is nothing to not like in this book.

Although written for children it is by no means childish. It is the sort of book any person can read irrespective of his age & enjoy it to the fullest.

 

The movie:

Like most movies based on books, this one too did not do justice to the book. It was nothing like the book. The one thing which it could have done better was using CGI to depict all the lovely moors, gardens, animals & other things of natural beauty. Instead the book proved superior even there for what I read painted a far beautiful picture than what I saw.

I hated that they turned Dickon – Mary’s friendship into some childhood love story in the making with Colin being typically jealous. Mary & Dickon are better off as the best of friends.

The movie sidelined Nature which is as important a hero in the novel as Mary. Ignoring Mrs. Sowerby completely was another mistake. Also, some of the changes were just plain silly. For example why did Mary’s parents have to die in an earthquake instead of a cholera?

No comparison can be made between the book & the movie. The book is a must read. You may skip the movie & you won’t be missing much at all.

 

The Shining (The Book): Stephen King

Tags

books, Danny Torrance, Jack Torrance, Stephen King, The Shining, Wendy Torrance

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

– Amazon

For many years now I had been hearing a lot of praise for Stephen King’s work. A little googling led me to The Shining.

What I liked:

• The language of the book is beautiful. The descriptions make it easy to build a mental picture of the Overlook, the snowed in Torrances in the hotel, the hedge animals, the shining, the climax, the ending, etc
• The ghoulish hedge animals be it the menacing lions or the rabbit which is supposed to be cute (but isn’t!)
• The ending. Though tragic, I liked it that Jack did not survive all of it in some miraculous way. Though I felt terrible for Danny losing his Daddy it was impossible for Jack to survive after the way the Hotel had screwed with his brains. And even if he had survived it would have been a miserable life.
• The tragedy that was Jack Torrance’s life & death. He genuinely believed that the new job at the Hotel would help him bond with his family. He believed he would complete his writing & would get a fresh start in his life. Unfortunately the Hotel put an end to all his dreams. It turned him into a monster & made him hurt the two people who were most dear to him.
• Wendy. She isn’t a strong character but that made her more real to me. She is like most women in the real world who take a whole lot of nonsense from their husband because they love them. She isn’t a go getter but when the time comes she survives a whole lot of pain & horror & emerges stronger.
• I hated Jack Torrance from start to finish. But this character provided a great insight into the sick mentality of abusers first with Jack being sometimes confused about his behaviour towards Danny & Wendy & then Jack sort of idolizing his abusive father.

What I didn’t like:

• Whatever reviews I read promised me a chilling suspense. They all said I would prefer putting the book away at night in order to sleep better. The book really did not scare me much. Not at all to be honest. Maybe I wouldn’t have felt any disappointment had I not read such reviews.
• I hated all the brackets in the text. You are reading a sentence (distracted due to this) & the author jumps (distracted again) to some other thread of thought which is damn irritating.
•  On the last page is a small note where Stephen King says that a lot of people ask him about what happened to Danny post The Shining. He has written a sequel to answer these people. Unfortunately it follows the predictable ‘like father, like son’ story line. So I am out.

A 2.5/5 for the book. I might read Stephen King again. I might not. The Shining was definitely not a great introduction to a new (for me) author for me.