Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

Is This the Most Romantic Window on the Earth ?


When it comes to the human body and its senses, there is no one who understands more than the French.
The French are indomitable in satisfying the palette with food prepared in the best quisine, vine, cheese and innumerable other things including the French croissant. As for the smell, what smells better than a French perfume? As for the eyes, from Mona Lisa to the high healed shoes of ValérieTrierweiler visual feast is the essence of French Haut Couture to modern French architecture, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower. No wonder why Paris has always attracted the most talented of artists, thinkers and philosophers and is most sought after Romantic destination in the world.


But it is the human body itself the French has an exquisite comprehension about, which is at the core of the Joie de vivre the French live and die with and urge everyone else have in life. The French somehow have a better notion of what the body is about like the Asians in general have an insight in to the spiritual nature of life.
Perhaps this inane appreciation of human body is what has produced the best designers, cooks and hoteliers from among the French.  With all that appreciation of the French psyche, however I was puzzled when I checked in to an ordinary hotel room, a few years back, in a town in France where I had earlier lived and worked for years. I had never seen anything like that!

 A window on the inner wall separating the bedroom from the attached bathroom. At first I was really intrigued. But slowly, as I settled down arranging my wardrobe and setting up my laptop on the table, the ingenuity of the interior designers and architects slowly started to dawn on me.  Of course, I could have asked the receptionist about it, but chose not to in order to hide my lack of culture.  I wasn’t sure if the feature was only for some rooms and I was specially offered one as an added welcome gesture.  Today, I don’t know if the hotel still has those rooms rented out to guests.

I am sure a lot of people will have different ideas about the purpose and utility of such a feature. But for someone who is looking forward to spend an evening with someone with a ‘tete a tete’ with ‘huitre’ and champagne and roses, the room with this romantic window should offer plenty of extended pleasures one can imagine.

Years later, when France has elected a new President and thinks nothing is abnormal or strange about his unmarried companion moving in to the Elysee palace with him, it is a lot more easier to take in the sublime imagination of the French designers who had conceived and incorporated this bizarre feature which appeared to be unique.
Not sure if this is unique at all or there are many other hotels with such exquisite add on facilities to make your stay more memorable and perhaps offered as an incentive for you to come back. It will be good to hear from others.
For anyone who has never come across this wonderful feature and wants to check out, the hotel was a branch of Mercure Hotels in the town of Evry, in the southern outskirts of Paris.

Article first published as What On Earth Is This Window For? on Technorati.
Friday, June 01, 2012
Posted by Unknown

How Did Hillary Clinton’s Diplomacy Tour Turn in to an Indian Holiday, Winning Hearts?

When Hillary Clinton planned and set off to theFareast for what was supposed to be her farewell trip, no one expected the secretary of State and her team to fly right in to the eye of the most testing diplomatic storm of her career. It is remarkable that Hillary Clinton and her equipage left Beijing without being mauled beyond recognition by the Chinese dragons.

So no one can blame Hillary if she decided to take it easy, and give a scoot to her risky engagement with the Tigress of West Bengal, Mamta Banerjee, for some powder room diplomacy instead. Mamta Banerjee had recently got rid of the communists who wrecked the state and its economy during past 24 years and has opposed US investment in India in the retail sector.

In political terms Mamta Banerjee has every quality of a Tiger, an endangered species of wild cats, for which the Sundarban forest of West Bengal is a protected sanctuary and tourist attraction.

Hillary and her team had planned to engage the mercurial leader for extracting concessions for US investment, which she was vehemently objecting. It was part of the larger recognition that power in India no longer resides simply in New Delhi and the U.S. must engage with regional leaders.

Instead, Hillary simply turned her trip in to a charm offensive with her 'namaste' (Indian way of greeting by holding your paws together) and winning smile, making everyone smile and pour accolades and genuine affection on the US Secretary of state, even implore her to contest the presidential in 2016.

Hillary and her team spend the time visiting its Heritage and engaging with its citizens in various cultural programmes though reports say that there were enough of discussions on what she wanted to exchange with the chief minister, which was played down by Mamta and the Indian press.

"I know for myself how difficult it is for women to get elected anywhere," Clinton said in Kolkata. "When I meet a woman who's broken through those barriers. . . we share a common bond, if you will, having gone through the fire of electoral politics."
There is no wonder why Hillary Clinton chose more to explore the lighter side of Kolkata, with which not only the British East India Company but many other famous personalities like Mother Theresa and Dominique Lapierre, the author of 'City Of Joy' were enamoured in the past.
However, it must be the spirit and emotional character of this city, in which it is hard to find a citizen who wants to migrate elsewhere, despite its din and dizzle and mass of population, which must have rubbed on the US Secretary of state and made her declare: "I want to come back to India and wander about without the streets being closed,"
Despite the sweltering heat of the Indian summer, Kolkota, which was the first British capital of India with many heritage buildings and history, has a lot to offer for a tourist with some spirit of adventure.

Article first published as How Did Hillary Clinton̢۪s Diplomacy Tour Turn in to an Indian Holiday, Winning Hearts? on Technorati

Why Are Italian Captains, Like Costa Cruise, Not The Flavour Of The Month?


The New Year so far had not been a lucky one for the Italian sea faring lot, especially the captains of the Italian vessels. First there was the Costa Concordia disaster, resulting in the death of several people which, many believe, could have been avoided by timely action of its captain Francesco Schettino and the Costa Cruise Company. In fact the scandalous behavior of the captain has gone in to the history books with his arrest on charges of his having caused the shipwreck
"owing to ... imprudence, negligence and incompetence" resulting in deaths, having abandoned about 300 people "unable to fend for themselves", and "not having been the last to leave" a shipwreck”
Even before the dust from the biggest disaster of the year so far has settled and the agony and pain from the disaster, with seven people still unaccounted, lingering for several families and their relatives, another Italian vessel, its captain and marines employed for its protection are embroiled in a International row on account of two unarmed fishermen from Kerala, a southern Indian State, who were shot dead on the high seas.
If the circumstances which lead to the Costa Concordia disaster were unbelievably insane, given the safety standard one would take for granted in the 21st century maritime life, the events which lead to the death of the two fishermen and the arrest of the Italian marines by the local police of an Indian state are right out of an exotic thriller.
Apparently the unbelievable incidence of shooting from a bobbing ship, killing precisely two unarmed persons in a bobbing and approaching boat, took place in broad daylight, in Indian waters at the orders of its captain!
The Italians claim that the ship and the pirates they shot at with warning shots away from targets, eventually thwarting the pirates and their boat from approaching the ship, were different from the boat and the fishermen who were killed.
Once again, an Italian Captain is in the centre of a controversy for lack of clarity and straight forward explanation of an in incident which has blown out of all proportions and grown in to a major international and diplomatic row between India and Italy.
So far, Italian ministers who have flown to India were unable to dissolve the issue which has become a maddeningly sensitive enough to upset the results of a local election, vital for the ruling congress party with stakes in the state and central government.
The incidence has also brought up severe lack of clarity as to the onus among the ship owners, the Italian navy and the Italian government regarding culpability of shooting and murdering innocent unarmed foreign nationals from Italian owned vessels in international waters.
To add further to the pain and lack of trust of the people of coastal Kerala , which look at the whole incidence with suspicion, another boat has been sunk in a collision with a ship, which has gone without reporting the incidence, killing two fishermen with three others missing.
When you consider the fate of the latest Costa Cruise vessel Costa Allegra, which went out of power supply and had to be towed from high seas, leaving its passengers with out food and other necessities for three days, it looks like the maritime diversions from life are certainly jinxed, at least for the Italian sea men!
Article first published as Why Are Italian Captains, Like Costa Cruise, Not The Flavour Of The Month? on Technorati.
Friday, March 02, 2012
Posted by Unknown

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