As they say, hindsight is always 20/20. The Mandarmani trip with my family started out exactly as one would expect, with a small caveat: it was a largely spontaneous one, and the 'hotel' was booked less than a week before. This obviously put our backs against the wall regarding accommodation options, since at this time of the year, every single 47-year-old man and his family in Kolkata decide to toss a coin between a trip to either Mandarmani or Digha to momentarily escape their day-to-day struggles, instead of just seeking professional help (perhaps we were an example of this phenotype ourselves). These 47-year-old men in question had booked every single decent resort to the brim, leaving us with no choice but to consider the next best option: a 3.7-rated hotel on Google with sea-facing rooms. Let's call it the Puffin Resort. Judging by the written reviews, the place was excellent, but for some curious reason, they came almost exclusively from young men who see...