Journeying through the World of Harry Potter

It all started with the book “HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban” that I borrowed from my cousin…and by the time I reached the end I was hooked on to the HP saga. Harry Potter saga was new to India then and not a lot of bookstores had HP books. So the collection was slow but by the time HP 5 released it hit the must-read book list in the country.

By the time book 6 and 7 released, the movies became a craze too. Being an ardent fan, the journey would be complete with a visit to the HP theme park at Universal Orlando or so was my belief. And so I gave ample time to the theme park in our trip to Florida. Staying at one of 3 resorts at Universal is totally worth the spend since you get the Quick access to all the rides plus get your purchases delivered to your room rather than carry it all the way.

As you step into Universal’s Islands of Adventure and venture a bit to the right…you can see the turrets of Hogsmeade looming in the distance. You need to cross the Lost Continent and Jurassic Park to get to Hogwarts. And when you enter through the gates, its as if you’ve stepped into the books themselves. It was breath-taking to see Butterbeer stalls and stores like Gladrags, Owl Emporium, Ollivander’s Wands, Dervish and Bangs, HoneyDukes and Zonkos in all their livery. Hogsmeade and its shops were all recreated taking care of the minutest of details.

Dragon Challenge includes 2 over-the-top rollercoaster rides that are not for the faint-hearted. And the Journey through Hogwarts simulator is well worth the visit although the hour long wait-time can get irksome. I won’t dwell into the what’s inside Hogwarts but you do see a lot of Venus Fly-traps in the Glass House. Butterbeer is an experience by itself…its fizzy, butterscotchy and well buttery! Try Ollivander’s Wands only if you have the patience to stand in the hot sun for an hour to get inside else you can find the wands in Dervish and Bangs as well.

Best of Hogwarts – Hogwarts, The rides, Butterbeer, Wands, the merchandise that’s straight out of the books, Chocolate Frogs and the wizarding cards, The Book that bites, Feather quills.

Not so great – The menu at Three Broomsticks is not veggie friendly, the long wait to get inside Hogwarts

On the whole…it was an awesome experience for us. Its worth visiting this theme park atleast once. For more pictures do visit A Thousand Words by Raks!

Hogwarts

To briefly describe…I attempted to paint the castle from a picture in TOI. I began painting this in 2009 and completed 90%  of the painting. I managed to complete the rest this year in March. The glitch is that I got maybe an hour or 2 to finish it and so ended up messing up the sky a bit.

Hogwarts - Oil Painting

The Deathly Hallows Return

The much-awaited final sequel in the HP saga arrived on the screens and I eagerly rushed to the AMC at Elizabeth, NJ to watch the movie only to end up standing in a loooooooooooong line of equally eager fans waiting for the 11PM show to begin.

Src - Top10kid.com

The Deathly Hallows Part 1 was fantastic from beginning to the end. I mean whatever mess was added to the scripts of Parts 5 & 6 were all well covered in 7. The film stuck to the storyline digressing a lil where humor was deliberately infused. Book 7 is understandbly dark and it gets darker and nastier as the story progresses. While reading the book, I got the sense that the happy ending was added in more as a after-thought than what the author originally had in mind. I mean the ideal scenario would’ve been for Harry to die but that wouldn’t sit well with the millions of fans out there who are creating their own HP character shippers.

As the story goes, the 3 protagonists  – Harry, Hermione and Ron decide to leave school to hunt down and destroy the Horcruxes. Their journey isn’t easy as Voldemort takes over the ministry for Magic and the wizarding world in Britain and pursues the trio at every turn. Added to the Horcruxes are the Hallows, which when combined, make the wizard/withc invincible. Where Voldemort is blindly pursuing only one of the Hallows, the Elder Wand; Dumbledore equips Harry with the knowledge of the other 2 Hollows through his last will. The story follows the characters progress in their quest, their character evolution and last but not the least on the outcome of the long-drawn war. A particular thought that struck me at the point where Scrimgeour hands over the Deilluminator to Ron is “How did Dumbledore forsee the part of Ron abandoning Harry?” Did Dumbledore have divination skills or a highly advanced intuition is anybody’s guess.

All said and done one must admit that through Dumbledore, the author set precedence to the grand finale of Harry hunting down and destroying Horcruxes and finally facing Voldemort himself. These were my musings while I watched the Deathly Hallows movie, and it only reinforced my resolve to re-read book 7.

For more, refer review of the Deathly Hallows on Shades of Words

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I know its too late to even blog about this but since its my blog…well I decided to do it

Anyways this is one of the many books that I would like to read over and over. The final book of the series…the Deathly Hallows picks off where book 6 left…the hunt for the remaining horcruxes – Salazar’s locket, Ravenclaw’s Diadem, Hufflepuff’s Cup, Nagini and finally Harry himself.

Accompanied by Ron and Hermione, Harry chooses to leave school in search of the horcruxes aided by the clues and artifacts that Dumbledore leaves to the three in his will. Meanwhile, Voldemort expands his power to the extent of taking over the ministry and acting from behind the scenes. He still fears Harry and so puts out rumors that Harry and his friends are fugitives.

The adventure takes the Gryffindor trio across the coast as they hunt for horcruxes and the means to destroy them. And the journey is not just about the horcruxes…we get to know a whole lot more about Dumbledore, his background, his friendship and enmity with Gellert Grindelwald, an ex-dark wizard not to mention the roots of Harry and Voldemort’s ancentry through the tale of the 3 Peverell brothers – Antioch, Cadmus and Ignotus which explains the 3 Hallows which if united can help the wizard master death.

Deviating from the main plot, I found the concept of mastering death a bit interesting… the wand would give you immense power over others, the resurrection stone would let you communicate with the dead while not really reviving them per se…and the cloak would let you stay undetected for long and escape almost every curse. But how can you master death by yourself?

Anyways…the climax to the whole plot is the grand battle that is fought between the death eaters and the wizarding community at Hogwarts and where Harry realizes the means to the end…to finishing Voldy. And Voldy stubborn as ever refuses to realize the truth in Harry’s last speech and so dies.

Here’s yet another story of good vs evil…but told in a different context with a new contemporary feel to it. The characters I liked the most here are Harry and Hermione…ofcourse Ron too. But Hermione seems to be the ever resourceful always with a solution at hand…keeping Harry and Ron going. Ron wizens up from book 6 and infact acts as the binding glue that keeps the 3 friends together until the very end.

And well Harry…he finally figures out most stuff all by himself…gets his guessworks right not to mention keeps very level headed. Neville comes out well surprising everyone with his brevity and defiance of the death eaters. And that is so heartening to read through. Rowling really outdid herself on this one…A perfect conclusion to the long drawn series. A memorable one infact.

On the whole, a book that is a must read for those who haven’t read it yet…and one that would remain on my bookshelf the longest for sure I can only hope that the movies justify the book.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

I probably would be one among the last ones to put up the HP series review on my blog, but I felt this series is a must add…Post watching the part 6 of this series, I needed to bury myself in the books in order to get back that pure flavor of the story that JK Rowling so painstakingly came up with.

As I was reading this book, I couldn’t help but marvel at how well the characters were developed over the last 5 books…how Harry, Ron and Hermione had emerged from book 1 to become a bit more wiser and more thoughtful.

As the story goes, this book is vital to linking all the books 1-5 which as Rowling indicated throw hints at the origin of Voldy and also the prophecy. Things only get murkier as you turn the pages here. This book deals with Voldemort’s ancestory and how the young Tom Marvolo Riddle turned out to be one of the most evil wizards in history. It also explores a bit more into Snape’s character as well. While it was quite thrilling to finally discover Voldemort’s ancestory I still couldn’t quite follow as to how anyone could turn out to be so evil. I suppose the tendency towards dabbling in dark arts is inherent in Slytherin’s bloodline.

Of all the people however, Harry seems to display the maximum commonsense and alertness as required of a hero next only to Hermione. However, his warnings about Draco Malfoy and Snape’s dual role seem to fall on deaf ears as everyone from Dumbledore to Lupin to the Weasleys refuse to believe in Harry’s findings. Dumbledore however wisely chooses to share his theories and assumptions on Voldemort’s secret to immortality with Harry. The only lighter parts here are the romances abound as Ron explores his first relationship with Lavender while earning Hermione’s ire, and Harry finally gets together with Ginny. The movie however decided to focus more on these mundane stuff and conveniently ignore the Hallows concept.

I suppose I should end my musings on this book here but on the whole it was a very fast paced story with a sad ending. I remember seeing so many notes, mails and comments in the news as soon as people read about Dumbledore’s death.

To view the movie review – Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince Review