by Sarita Dasgupta
Prologue
On a trip to England with my late husband – a tea planter in Assam – in 1999, we went to a car boot sale one Saturday. Ambling along, we espied an old tea chest with a familiar name stencilled on one side. It was the name of the estate on which my husband was posted as Factory Assistant Manager when we got married. Looking at the date also stencilled on the side, we realized the chest had been packed during my husband’s tenure, under his supervision!
Seeing this familiar object so far from home gave us quite a thrill and got me thinking about the whole process of transporting tea made and packed in the tea estates of Assam, to England and other countries, especially in the very beginning, when the British East India Company started transporting tea plucked and processed on their Assam estates to England by ship in the early 1900s. It was, however, the tea clippers, known as the ‘greyhounds of the sea’ and the aura of romance surrounding them, which caught my fancy.
The British East India Company was granted their charter in1600 by Queen Elizabeth I as the 'Company and Merchants of London trading with the East Indies' and held the monopoly on British trade from the Far East until the early 1800s.
It was in the 1820s that the British East India Company took over vast expanses of land in the state of Assam in north-east India. They brought in people from neighbouring states to help clear the land and plant tea bushes in neat rows, thus establishing the first tea estates, many of which exist to this day. By the beginning of the 20th century, Assam had become the leading tea producing region in the world.
After the tea leaves were plucked from the bushes and processed in the factories of the Assam estates, the finished product was packed in wooden boxes called tea chests, which were taken to the nearest ‘ghat’ (riverside) in bullock carts. There, they were loaded onto boats which took them to Calcutta, from where they were transferred to the holds of the East India Company’s large, strong, slow ships, known as East Indiamen, each of which could carry 1,200 tons of cargo.
Since the Company had the monopoly on British trade from the Far East, their priority was to minimize costs by loading as much as possible onto each ship. A round trip took almost two years, if the weather remained fair, but could take much longer if the conditions were unfavourable! The tea drunk in England was thus about a year old and another year's supply of tea was always kept in reserve in London in case the ships were captured or lost at sea.
Although quite a number of these ships, such as the ‘Charles Grant’, were built from fine quality teak in Indian dockyards, and were more resistant to sea worms that ate through the bottom of the ships made from English oak, the life expectancy of these East Indiamen was limited to four voyages made within a period of eight to ten years. In two centuries, the Company’s ships made 4,600 voyages between London and the Far East. Some of the most famous of these stately ships, dubbed Lords of the Ocean, were the Princess Royal, the Warley and the Charles Grant. Later models were modified to look like single-decked warships and called Blackwall Frigates, the better known ones being the Seringapatam and the Prince of Wales.
Once British Navigation Law opened up the country’s ports to American vessels, the East India Company lost its monopoly and realized that they needed to transport their tea much faster in order to be ahead of rival firms. With the additional supply available, the dealers in London found that the best way to sell their tea was to advertise and promote its freshness. As the newer tea had a better flavour, the demand for fresh tea grew.
The Americans were using ‘clippers’, thus called because, with their narrower hulls and a greater number of sails, they ‘clipped off’ miles. These ships, designed like large yachts, were attractive, sleek, graceful and fast. They also had enough stowage space to carry more than a million pounds of tea. The first American clipper to reach London was the ‘Oriental’ which arrived at West India Dock on 3 December 1850, just ninety-seven days after leaving Hong Kong!
Once the East India Company realized that the clippers were travelling three times faster than their East Indiamen (the former were completing the journey in 100 days instead of 365 days!) they sold off these ponderous ships and commissioned their own clippers, the first of which was ‘Stornoway’, built in 1850, by the firm of Alexander Hall & Sons in Aberdeen, Scotland. The renowned mercantile house of Jardine & Matheson had bought the first British-made tea clipper, Torrington, from the same firm in 1846.
These ‘greyhounds of the sea’ carrying tea and other goods from the East to the West were imbued with an aura of romance because of their speed. Soon, clipper races were all the rage. As each clipper was committed to a rival merchant in London who wanted to get his tea on the market ahead of his competitors and sell it at a premium, these races were fought in real earnest.
Very often, these British and American vessels raced side by side all the way from their ports of origin in the Far East – dealing with fast currents, dangerous reefs, strong winds, monsoon tides and even pirates – until they reached the Thames estuary; a voyage of 14,000 miles! The final leg of the journey up the Thames, towed in by tug boats, decided who would win the race.
As no one in London knew which clipper was ahead, the excitement began when the first ship was sighted turning into the mouth of the Thames, and telegrams were shot off to the London offices of the various tea companies, reporting the progress of the ships. Newspapers carried headlines reporting who was in the lead and people thronged the docks to watch the ships being towed in by tug boats. Gentlemen's clubs buzzed with talk about who was winning and fortunes were wagered on the outcome of the race.
Tea brokers stayed in hotels close to the docks so that as soon as the first chests of tea were offloaded, they could taste samples and choose the finest teas. They then organized the delivery of the chosen chests to their tasting rooms in London and put them up for auction at the earliest.
One of the most famous clipper races in the annals of clipper history was The Great Tea Race of 1866. Eleven clippers all set sail from the East together, and four of them somehow managed to keep within sight of each other right up to the English Channel! They sailed into the Thames one after the other and half way along the river, Ariel, under the command of Captain Keay, and Taeping, commanded by Captain M’Kinnon, were only a mile apart. In fact, they were so close that the owners of the two ships – Messrs Phillips, Shaw and Lowther (Ariel) and Messers Rogers and Co (Taeping) agreed that they would share the profits on the teas each was carrying. But Taeping was towed in by a faster tug and reached the quay twenty minutes ahead of Ariel, thus winning the race, a £500 reward for the crew and a higher price for the tea. After a furious dispute between the owners, the prize money of ten shillings a ton was finally shared between both ships. All eleven ships reached London within three days of each other.
The Clipper Age – thirty glorious years of reigning supreme – came to an end with the advent of the steamships in 1869, and, later, with the opening up of the Suez Canal which allowed for travel between the East and West in a much shorter time.
The most famous clipper, and the fastest of them all, was the Cutty Sark, commissioned in the last year of the clippers’ reign. She sailed at the record speed of 20 miles an hour – putting the steamships to shame! She eventually went out of service in December 1954 and is now mounted and displayed in her restored glory, in Greenwich, south-east London, close to the National Maritime Museum.
One can explore the historical ship and also enjoy a cup of tea sitting in the café directly underneath her hull.
Incidentally, the term ‘Cutty Sark’, taken from Robert Burns’ famous poem, ‘Tam O’Shanter’, is an archaic Scottish term for a short nightdress!
“Her cutty sark o' Paisley harn,
That while a lassie she had worn,
In longitude tho' sorely scanty,
It was her best, and she was vauntie.”
Translated, the verse reads:
“Her short underskirt of Paisley cloth,
That as a young girl she had worn,
In length though very limited,
It was her best, and she was proud.”
An interesting ‘side effect’ of the Tea Clippers making fresh tea readily available as well as affordable, was the ‘invention’ of Afternoon Tea. This custom was believed to have been introduced by Anna, Duchess of Bedford in 1840. When Queen Victoria gave her stamp of approval to this new trend (introduced to her by the Duchess of Bedford, who was one of her ladies-in-waiting) it proved so popular that ‘low tea’ (so called because the tea along with eats such as sandwiches, scones, sweets and pastries, was laid out on small tables in a lady's boudoir or drawing room) was soon served in all ‘fashionable’ households around four o'clock in the afternoon and became the main ‘testing ground’ for society ladies. Only if one’s manners passed the afternoon tea test would one be considered acceptable for other functions! From ‘low tea’, the name changed to ‘At Home’, as a hostess would send out invitations to tea for a certain afternoon in the week and remain ‘at home’ to receive her guests.
Not only did this new social ritual provide additional avenues of revenue for silversmiths, linen makers and manufacturers of chinaware, but hotels also cashed in on this ‘national craze’ and introduced daily afternoon tea with light entertainment, such as a pianist or singer. They even introduced dancing at tea time – the birth of the Tea Dance, better known by its French term, ‘Thé Dansant’. A live orchestra or band would provide the music, and dancing would be followed by refreshments consisting of beverages such as tea, coffee, ices, champagne-cup and claret-cup, served with fruit, sandwiches, cake and biscuits. Tea Dances were extremely popular till the 1940s and continue to be held on special occasions even today.
Those three decades in the latter half of the nineteenth century, known as the Clipper Age, not only provided great excitement for tea drinkers as well as for the general public, but also had a major effect on the social customs of that time.
The Clipper Age has thus deservedly earned its special place in the history of Tea.
Epilogue 1
In 2015, a friend asked me if a gentleman called Nick Flittner living in Tasmania could get in touch with me. He had bought an old tea chest off the internet and wanted to know what the words stencilled on the side meant. One of them was ‘Bordubi’ and my husband happened to be the General Manager of Bordubi Tea Estate in Assam. Mr Flittner got in touch with me and I explained that his tea chest must have, at one time, contained tea produced at Bordubi Tea Estate. The date on the box was 1991, which was the last year that tea had been packed and transported in tea chests. I told him something about the estate, sent him photographs, and my husband sent him a packet of Bordubi tea, which he was delighted to receive.
He wanted to know how the tea chests had been transported from Assam in India to all parts of the world, and was fascinated when I told him about the Tea Clippers of yore.
When my husband suddenly passed away in May 2016, Mr Flittner (whom we had never met) planted a lavender bush in his memory, adding a teaspoon of Bordubi tea to the soil.
Epilogue 2
Nick Flittner and I met in England in May 2018 and went to see the Cutty Sark together, along with another friend. We learned that the clipper had transported cargo between Australia and England too!
As we sat and drank a cup of tea below the hull of the Cutty Sark, looking up at the massive hull in awe, I was filled with a sense of history… and completion.
Meet the writer, Sarita Dasgupta:
"As a ‘chai ka baby’ (and grandbaby!) and then a ‘chai ka memsahab’, I sometimes wonder if I have tea running through my veins!
I have been writing for as long as can remember – not only my reminiscences about life in ‘tea’ but also skits, plays, and short stories. My plays and musicals have been performed by school children in Guwahati, Kolkata and Pune, and my first collection of short stories for children, called Feathered Friends, was published by Amazing Reads (India Book Distributors) in 2016. My Rainbow Reader series of English text books and work books have been selected as the prescribed text for Classes I to IV by the Meghalaya Board of School Education for the 2018-2019 academic session, and I have now started writing another series for the same publisher.
I am also the Editor of The WM Times, McLeod Russel’s bi-annual house journal." - Sarita Dasgupta
Sarita was one of the first 'Indian Chai Stories' writers - this page wouldn't ever have taken off without the wonderful tea memsaab storytellers (more on this later)!
Have you read Sarita's earlier stories? The Gracious Hostess, followed by The Dastoor called 'Acting' and River Escapade are all full of the irrepressible spirit of fun!
And don't miss Nick Flittner's story about the tea chest - Nick's Treasured Chest
A Word Of Welcome
Is this your first visit here? Welcome to Indian Chai Stories!
If you've ever visited a tea garden or lived in one, or if you have a good friend who did, you would have heard some absolutely improbable stories!
You will meet many storytellers here at Indian Chai Stories, and they are almost all from the world of tea gardens: planters, memsaabs, baby and baba log. Each of our contributors has a really good story to tell - don't lose any time before you start reading them!
My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story: a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny, always true( always ), maybe a tall tale, or long, short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull.
Do you have a chai story of your own to share?
Send it to me here, please : indianchaistories@gmail.com.
The blog is updated every two to three days. You will find yourself transported into another world!
Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!
Gowri
Prologue
On a trip to England with my late husband – a tea planter in Assam – in 1999, we went to a car boot sale one Saturday. Ambling along, we espied an old tea chest with a familiar name stencilled on one side. It was the name of the estate on which my husband was posted as Factory Assistant Manager when we got married. Looking at the date also stencilled on the side, we realized the chest had been packed during my husband’s tenure, under his supervision!
Seeing this familiar object so far from home gave us quite a thrill and got me thinking about the whole process of transporting tea made and packed in the tea estates of Assam, to England and other countries, especially in the very beginning, when the British East India Company started transporting tea plucked and processed on their Assam estates to England by ship in the early 1900s. It was, however, the tea clippers, known as the ‘greyhounds of the sea’ and the aura of romance surrounding them, which caught my fancy.
 |
| Sarita at the helm of the Cutty Sark |
It was in the 1820s that the British East India Company took over vast expanses of land in the state of Assam in north-east India. They brought in people from neighbouring states to help clear the land and plant tea bushes in neat rows, thus establishing the first tea estates, many of which exist to this day. By the beginning of the 20th century, Assam had become the leading tea producing region in the world.
After the tea leaves were plucked from the bushes and processed in the factories of the Assam estates, the finished product was packed in wooden boxes called tea chests, which were taken to the nearest ‘ghat’ (riverside) in bullock carts. There, they were loaded onto boats which took them to Calcutta, from where they were transferred to the holds of the East India Company’s large, strong, slow ships, known as East Indiamen, each of which could carry 1,200 tons of cargo.
Since the Company had the monopoly on British trade from the Far East, their priority was to minimize costs by loading as much as possible onto each ship. A round trip took almost two years, if the weather remained fair, but could take much longer if the conditions were unfavourable! The tea drunk in England was thus about a year old and another year's supply of tea was always kept in reserve in London in case the ships were captured or lost at sea.
Although quite a number of these ships, such as the ‘Charles Grant’, were built from fine quality teak in Indian dockyards, and were more resistant to sea worms that ate through the bottom of the ships made from English oak, the life expectancy of these East Indiamen was limited to four voyages made within a period of eight to ten years. In two centuries, the Company’s ships made 4,600 voyages between London and the Far East. Some of the most famous of these stately ships, dubbed Lords of the Ocean, were the Princess Royal, the Warley and the Charles Grant. Later models were modified to look like single-decked warships and called Blackwall Frigates, the better known ones being the Seringapatam and the Prince of Wales.
Once British Navigation Law opened up the country’s ports to American vessels, the East India Company lost its monopoly and realized that they needed to transport their tea much faster in order to be ahead of rival firms. With the additional supply available, the dealers in London found that the best way to sell their tea was to advertise and promote its freshness. As the newer tea had a better flavour, the demand for fresh tea grew.
 |
| Inside the Cutty Sark |
Once the East India Company realized that the clippers were travelling three times faster than their East Indiamen (the former were completing the journey in 100 days instead of 365 days!) they sold off these ponderous ships and commissioned their own clippers, the first of which was ‘Stornoway’, built in 1850, by the firm of Alexander Hall & Sons in Aberdeen, Scotland. The renowned mercantile house of Jardine & Matheson had bought the first British-made tea clipper, Torrington, from the same firm in 1846.
These ‘greyhounds of the sea’ carrying tea and other goods from the East to the West were imbued with an aura of romance because of their speed. Soon, clipper races were all the rage. As each clipper was committed to a rival merchant in London who wanted to get his tea on the market ahead of his competitors and sell it at a premium, these races were fought in real earnest.
Very often, these British and American vessels raced side by side all the way from their ports of origin in the Far East – dealing with fast currents, dangerous reefs, strong winds, monsoon tides and even pirates – until they reached the Thames estuary; a voyage of 14,000 miles! The final leg of the journey up the Thames, towed in by tug boats, decided who would win the race.
As no one in London knew which clipper was ahead, the excitement began when the first ship was sighted turning into the mouth of the Thames, and telegrams were shot off to the London offices of the various tea companies, reporting the progress of the ships. Newspapers carried headlines reporting who was in the lead and people thronged the docks to watch the ships being towed in by tug boats. Gentlemen's clubs buzzed with talk about who was winning and fortunes were wagered on the outcome of the race.
Tea brokers stayed in hotels close to the docks so that as soon as the first chests of tea were offloaded, they could taste samples and choose the finest teas. They then organized the delivery of the chosen chests to their tasting rooms in London and put them up for auction at the earliest.
One of the most famous clipper races in the annals of clipper history was The Great Tea Race of 1866. Eleven clippers all set sail from the East together, and four of them somehow managed to keep within sight of each other right up to the English Channel! They sailed into the Thames one after the other and half way along the river, Ariel, under the command of Captain Keay, and Taeping, commanded by Captain M’Kinnon, were only a mile apart. In fact, they were so close that the owners of the two ships – Messrs Phillips, Shaw and Lowther (Ariel) and Messers Rogers and Co (Taeping) agreed that they would share the profits on the teas each was carrying. But Taeping was towed in by a faster tug and reached the quay twenty minutes ahead of Ariel, thus winning the race, a £500 reward for the crew and a higher price for the tea. After a furious dispute between the owners, the prize money of ten shillings a ton was finally shared between both ships. All eleven ships reached London within three days of each other.
The Clipper Age – thirty glorious years of reigning supreme – came to an end with the advent of the steamships in 1869, and, later, with the opening up of the Suez Canal which allowed for travel between the East and West in a much shorter time.
 |
| Sarita in front of the Cutty Sark |
One can explore the historical ship and also enjoy a cup of tea sitting in the café directly underneath her hull.
Incidentally, the term ‘Cutty Sark’, taken from Robert Burns’ famous poem, ‘Tam O’Shanter’, is an archaic Scottish term for a short nightdress!
“Her cutty sark o' Paisley harn,
That while a lassie she had worn,
In longitude tho' sorely scanty,
It was her best, and she was vauntie.”
Translated, the verse reads:
“Her short underskirt of Paisley cloth,
That as a young girl she had worn,
In length though very limited,
It was her best, and she was proud.”
An interesting ‘side effect’ of the Tea Clippers making fresh tea readily available as well as affordable, was the ‘invention’ of Afternoon Tea. This custom was believed to have been introduced by Anna, Duchess of Bedford in 1840. When Queen Victoria gave her stamp of approval to this new trend (introduced to her by the Duchess of Bedford, who was one of her ladies-in-waiting) it proved so popular that ‘low tea’ (so called because the tea along with eats such as sandwiches, scones, sweets and pastries, was laid out on small tables in a lady's boudoir or drawing room) was soon served in all ‘fashionable’ households around four o'clock in the afternoon and became the main ‘testing ground’ for society ladies. Only if one’s manners passed the afternoon tea test would one be considered acceptable for other functions! From ‘low tea’, the name changed to ‘At Home’, as a hostess would send out invitations to tea for a certain afternoon in the week and remain ‘at home’ to receive her guests.
Not only did this new social ritual provide additional avenues of revenue for silversmiths, linen makers and manufacturers of chinaware, but hotels also cashed in on this ‘national craze’ and introduced daily afternoon tea with light entertainment, such as a pianist or singer. They even introduced dancing at tea time – the birth of the Tea Dance, better known by its French term, ‘Thé Dansant’. A live orchestra or band would provide the music, and dancing would be followed by refreshments consisting of beverages such as tea, coffee, ices, champagne-cup and claret-cup, served with fruit, sandwiches, cake and biscuits. Tea Dances were extremely popular till the 1940s and continue to be held on special occasions even today.
Those three decades in the latter half of the nineteenth century, known as the Clipper Age, not only provided great excitement for tea drinkers as well as for the general public, but also had a major effect on the social customs of that time.
The Clipper Age has thus deservedly earned its special place in the history of Tea.
 |
| The massive hull of the Cutty Sark |
Epilogue 1
In 2015, a friend asked me if a gentleman called Nick Flittner living in Tasmania could get in touch with me. He had bought an old tea chest off the internet and wanted to know what the words stencilled on the side meant. One of them was ‘Bordubi’ and my husband happened to be the General Manager of Bordubi Tea Estate in Assam. Mr Flittner got in touch with me and I explained that his tea chest must have, at one time, contained tea produced at Bordubi Tea Estate. The date on the box was 1991, which was the last year that tea had been packed and transported in tea chests. I told him something about the estate, sent him photographs, and my husband sent him a packet of Bordubi tea, which he was delighted to receive.
He wanted to know how the tea chests had been transported from Assam in India to all parts of the world, and was fascinated when I told him about the Tea Clippers of yore.
When my husband suddenly passed away in May 2016, Mr Flittner (whom we had never met) planted a lavender bush in his memory, adding a teaspoon of Bordubi tea to the soil.
Epilogue 2
Nick Flittner and I met in England in May 2018 and went to see the Cutty Sark together, along with another friend. We learned that the clipper had transported cargo between Australia and England too!
As we sat and drank a cup of tea below the hull of the Cutty Sark, looking up at the massive hull in awe, I was filled with a sense of history… and completion.
Meet the writer, Sarita Dasgupta:
"As a ‘chai ka baby’ (and grandbaby!) and then a ‘chai ka memsahab’, I sometimes wonder if I have tea running through my veins!
I have been writing for as long as can remember – not only my reminiscences about life in ‘tea’ but also skits, plays, and short stories. My plays and musicals have been performed by school children in Guwahati, Kolkata and Pune, and my first collection of short stories for children, called Feathered Friends, was published by Amazing Reads (India Book Distributors) in 2016. My Rainbow Reader series of English text books and work books have been selected as the prescribed text for Classes I to IV by the Meghalaya Board of School Education for the 2018-2019 academic session, and I have now started writing another series for the same publisher.
I am also the Editor of The WM Times, McLeod Russel’s bi-annual house journal." - Sarita Dasgupta
Sarita was one of the first 'Indian Chai Stories' writers - this page wouldn't ever have taken off without the wonderful tea memsaab storytellers (more on this later)!
Have you read Sarita's earlier stories? The Gracious Hostess, followed by The Dastoor called 'Acting' and River Escapade are all full of the irrepressible spirit of fun!
And don't miss Nick Flittner's story about the tea chest - Nick's Treasured Chest
A Word Of Welcome
Is this your first visit here? Welcome to Indian Chai Stories!
If you've ever visited a tea garden or lived in one, or if you have a good friend who did, you would have heard some absolutely improbable stories!
You will meet many storytellers here at Indian Chai Stories, and they are almost all from the world of tea gardens: planters, memsaabs, baby and baba log. Each of our contributors has a really good story to tell - don't lose any time before you start reading them!
My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story: a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny, always true( always ), maybe a tall tale, or long, short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull.
Do you have a chai story of your own to share?
Send it to me here, please : indianchaistories@gmail.com.
The blog is updated every two to three days. You will find yourself transported into another world!
Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!
Gowri
15 comments:
Very interesting, Sarita. Your UK sojourn this year proves that you do not believe in letting sleeping dogs lie. May you continue to perpetuate history and share your findings with us.
A most enjoyable and interesting read
Sarita what a delightful write up! kept me engrossed from the first line till it concluded. I imagine you sitting bellow the hull of Cutty Sark sipping Tea .. what an experience this must have been.
Along with books for children start your travelogues too. feed us more the appetite never sickens never dies.
my best wishes always
Teastories.....transports me to different world ...thanks for bringing out such magnificent pieces of history
Hi Sarita - this is a lovely story and thank you for posting it on the Tea Story Tellers blog. We have a small 'society' that is operating in the UK named The London Tea History Association which has members that have been involved with the tea industry in India. As so many of the old British Tea Agency Houses have now gone from the scene, the Association is trying to put 'blue plaques' around the City of London stating which companies used to have their offices at that location. For example, the old Inchcape & Co building at 40 St Mary Axe in the city has been demolished, along with other offices in that street, and the London Gherkin constructed on the site. This is now quite a landmark known all over the world. Now, in case many of our readers are not aware, the flag of the United States of America (Old Glory/Stars & Stripes) is nearly a copy of the Honourable East India Company's flag. The main part of the flag, red and white stripes is the same, but where the blue part with the stars on (each one represents one state) is located at the top, it replaces the old British Union Jack! Quite a few Americans that I know were not aware of this! So what was all the fuss of the Boston Tea Party? I will send an attachment to Gowri which shows the HIEC flag. Finally, I sincerely hope that the WM Times will continue although with much less coverage of those tea estates that have been disposed of by McLeod Russell. Very best regards to you and your family. Alan
Dear Alan, thank you for your appreciation. I'm very interested to hear about the work of the London Tea History Association. I'll look for the blue plaques on my next trip to London. I was also intrigued to read about the East India Co's flag. I'll take a look at your email & the artachment. Warm regards, Sarita
I'm so glad you enjoyed the article.
Thank you for your kind words & good wishes, Shalini ji. Warm regards
Thank you. So glad you enjoyed reading it.
Thanks Roma. Will endeavour to do so! Best, Sarita
Very interesting and and very well written. Thank for sharing.
This link was shared by an old friend and it was a delight to read. The words transported me to a different era when tea ruled as the drink of the lords and the ladies and the excitement to see the tea bearing ships race neck to neck towards the finishing line must have been quite the sight. Kudos to the author. Fantastic post!
Thank you. I'm glad you found it interesting.
Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed reading the article.
The musings and memories your Chai story brought back...wonderful! After nine years of early married life, with two of our three children (the last born post life in TEA ) a cat, a dog and a piano, we left the peace and tranquility of life in the gardens in 1970. Friends, Club nights, annual trips "home" on leave, pottering in one's garden, becoming teacher to our girls and the Burra Sahib's daughter, came to fill our treasure chest of memories. Theres much of all that we missed, but in a city , life and culture began to absorb and ssimilate us in new ways. What remains after nearly 50 years away are treasured friendships, fond remincences and rich experiences of living amongst the green, green bushes and canopies of shade trees! And ofcourse an addiction to a good, flavourful cuppa!
Post a Comment