Yercaud.....a beutiful holiday spot

Yercaud is 35 km from Salem, about 1.5 hr travel by car. Though there are are 20 hairpin bends , the drive is very comfortable as the road is very good and the traffic is comparitively less. On the way up, there are beutiful orange , coffee and silver oak tree estates. This is the flowering season for coffee and you could feel the thick / heady smell of coffee flowers all over the hill . The best part of Yercaud is that the climate is never too cold or hot. Its quite comfortable both day and night. Do not require special woolen clothing , you would be comfortable in your usual casual clthing.

Sight seeing includes many view points to see the beauti of the hills and you can also see the small villages situated on top hills. There is a 2000 year old cave temple, a very small one. Understand the cave ends at Coorg , at Thalai Kaveri , and it is believed that in olden days the cave was used by the village heads to commute to Coorg. There is a Botanical garden, which is closed on week ends , usuefl for students. And understand the Lake is a natural one and boating is arranged for tourists.

Perfume business is quite healthy there and you also get varieties of massage oils and organic cosmetics too. To buy fruits , especially oranges , you must visit the place in December.

The stay in sterling resorts is good. The view , especially the night view, is very beautiful. The resort organise sight seeing trips, trecking , ayurvadic treatments , other entertainment programmes for the guests. There are other hotels and resorts are also avaiable.

UMRAO JAN ADA - The Courtesan of lucknow

Umrao Jan Ada , an Urdu novel by Mirza Muhammad Hadi Ruswa translated to English by the prominent writer Khushwant Singh , is an account of Umrao's life as a Lucknowi courtesan. Ruswa is a beutiful story teller. The novel describes the social status of Muslim society in northern India in the 19th century and was said to be published 100 years ago. It takes the reader through the gracious old Lucknow where wealthy nawabs lived in beautiful palaces and the courtesans (prostitudes) in luxurious abodes .

The Umrao Jan of this novel , though a cortesan, is a woman of culture, with charm of manner and with a reputation as a singer. The question of her existance,her beauty, her scholarly abilities and her poetic gift remains a mystery even today. This novel is not Ruswi's imagination, but the actual life narrated by Umrao herself to the writer ,who had much to do with her life and loves. Umrao Jan narrated her life in a series of sittings , which was written by Ruzwa and shown to her before being published.

The book is memorable due to the complex charactarization of Umrao, and the life she lived as a courtesan. The book ends with these two lines

My day comes to a close, death draws nigh

And I have drunk of life to the dregs.