Hotel le Papa

So, now that your exams are over, you probably want a break from books and are planning to go on a trip. Perhaps, in an effort to cool off in the heat, a trip to Cox's Bazar, or even a vacation with friends to a foreign country? Before that, you will have tickets, accomodation and what not to consider. Some of you may even look for a hotel, preferably a 'home away from home”.

Thus, welcome to Hotel le Papa! Forget JW Marriot, the Taj or even Dhaka's Sheraton and Sonargaon, this is the place to be. You want Star Rating? It's just so good, it doesn't even need one! No hassle of checking in and out of this hotel, since after all you are usually born into it (lucky you!).

The owners share a relationship with you (you may also call them parents), so the feeling is even warmer and have you checked in at the Royal Suite (sometimes shared with another “guest”). You get your own Support Staff, i.e. housekeeping (“bua” , “chuta bua”), watchman and chauffeur. Of course, there may be more than one of each. They attend to you and listen to every whimsical demand of yours, since the guest is always right (or maybe just because you are the employer's offspring). Gourmet cuisine (prepared with no “bhejal”), financial consultancy (they have a lot to say about that, what with the skyrocketing prices) and valet parking. Furthermore, no tipping is required! Now, which hotel in the world provides that?

Hotel le Papa understands that entertaining a guest is the ONLY way to keep them happy. You get television with over 90 channels, a personal computer complete with high-speed broadband Internet connection (with no restriction to websites, ahem), a music system (karaoke as well for the singers), a gaming console or two, a landline and as part of their complimentary service, (rather compelled service) a cellphone with potentially never-ending credit and so much more! And considering your negligible financial solvency, not a single taka is spent out of your pocket. If that's not enough, Event Management (parents) takes care of organising your Birthday Parties, Exam Result celebrations and every other event that involves you and a group of your friends and family. Do I need to ask the question again?

Now, happiness cannot be bought with money and at the end of the day, with friends all busy, you are bored in your Royal Suite at the Hotel; with none to even look at, since the owners and Staff may be occupied themselves. Worry not, for the Hotel looks after that too. Introducing, S.I.B.L.I.N.G.S. (Secondary Individuals Because Lony Idiot Naturally Gets Sullen). They are human, uniquely while at that, but serve to the purpose of occupying your idle mind. They may be older or younger than you and have slightly different personalities (and tend to be of an annoying nature) than what you have, but all the same, you have someone to talk to, even in the middle of the night, without disturbing the other inhabitants of the Hotel. Of course, you also have the liberty of inviting friends to stay with you at the Hotel, but this is the way it works.

The Hotel wishes you to be independent, and so the Education Program comes in. You are sent to a school, and identifying your abysmal learning capacity, send you to educational facilities called coaching centres and this Program ends well into University. Training for activities such as outdoor sports are covered under the Program. Additional services include the 3M; the Medical Service (for the maladies, injuries and what not), the Moral Police (for instilling good morals like not to accept sedative sweets from strangers and the likes), and the Matrimonial Service, so that eventually you can join the ever-growing chain of Hotels les Papas.

Last but not the least, Hotel le Papa provides Hotel Transfer, where they send you to posh, fancy hotels on vacations and that cover all expenses. Of course, after all this, I would rather suggest you to be happy and not take that darned place for granted. For reservations, call at 1800-HOTELLEPAPA.

By Wahid T. Khan

The Cool Myth Box

He-Man Master of the Universe

Forget Unicorns, Zeus and Hippos. The real deal is He-Man and every man alive knows this. The origin of this mythical God is still debatable. Surfacing sometime in the 1982, maybe it was archealogsist or cartoonists who discovered He-Man's existence. Earlier theories suggested that He-Man was the protector of the secrets of the Castle Grayskull, which contained many secret weapons left over from the times of the Great Wars, which destroyed much of civilization. One of the weapons is He-Man's swords which if united with the evil Skeletor's sword, acts as the key to the secrets of Castle Grayskull. However, He-Man finds himself finding Skeletor continuously to protect the castle, as Skeletor doesn't use his Power Sword to help He-Man. However, history suggests that maybe at one point the swords were actually united.

Though, there isn't any surety about He-Man's true origins, one legend, the more widely believed and modern one, says that He-Man was moulded as the alter-ego of Prince Adam of Eternia, son of King Randor and Queen Mandela. Though, none of these are proven to be facts, this latter and newer version is more widely believed. In this version, Castle Grayskull becomes the power source of He-Man. Legend has it that the Sorceress lived in the Castle and managed to give Adam his powers and he kept it a secret to protect his family. Only a few people knew of this such as Orko and Adam's best friend Man-At-Arms. Teela, Adam's suitor is also apparently unaware of this for quite sometime.

He-Man is said to have superhuman strength and he is also supposedly very fast, the master of the impossible tricks such as running at speeds to create a vaccum and being able to blow high powered gusts or winds and he is also very acrobatic. His strength is so great that legend has it, that once he traded punches with Superman sometime in late 2002.

He-Man is a prince at heart and is very kind and noble and hates resorting to violence. His trusted sword is his primary weapon. No one can ascertain how long He-Man can remain He-Man and not become Prince Adam, but experts argue that there is actually such a time limit. He-Man is truly the master of the universe.

By Osama Rahman

Gadget talk

Computer source introduces its first Fujitso Netbook with the M1010 model. Like all other netbooks, it has an 8.9 inch display with 1024 x 600 native resolution. It's powered by the Intel Atom processor, again like all netbooks, with a clockspeed of 1.6GHz, a 512KB L2 cache, and a 533MHz FSB. The storage capacity is not the 8GB solid state HDD that some netbooks come with, but 60GB, with the Genuine Windows XP Home Premium OS.

1GB of RAM- DDR2, 533MHz- ensures that you can perform tasks faster as long as you don't go for anything resource intensive, like Photoshop CS4 or the like. The 4 cell battery will give you 4 hours of power.

A netbook isn't a netbook without Wi-Fi, though so, you'll be able to satisfy your Internet needs anywhere, so long as you're in a wireless network zone. There's a 1.3 megapixel web cam, and a Bluetooth adapter, v2.1, to let you connect with your phone.

M1010 comes with five colors- Red, Bronze, Blue, Black and Pink. Computer Source Ltd. offers two of these, and a free slip case to go with.

The price of the M1010 is set at 33,500, and includes a year long warranty.