The Annamalai Story

by Jaswant      

 I am planning to write my story in four parts. This is the second instalment. *                       

From Wynaad Ripon Estate my father packed his bags and left with family for his hometown Calicut to stay for a few days before proceeding to the Anamallais on a transfer to Murgalli Estate. He bought his first car, a Renault 1945  model. The ghat road with its 40 hairpin bends was no doubt trying for any  driver for the first time. Aliyar dam those days was non- existent. The panoramic view and also watching the ropeway trolley laden with tea chests moving on cables across the hills was an enthralling sight.

Anamallai Ropeway company transported most of the teas from Roti Kadai to Pollachi by ropeway and from there trucks carried them to Cochin for auctions ( Forbes Ewart & Figgis, J.Thomas & Co and Carrit Morans were the only three auction houses then). 

 The Peria Dorai(Tamil for the big boss) and dorsani (the boss's wife) of Murgalli estate were Mr &Mrs Stewart . They stayed in a beautiful bungalow that had a swimming pool with immersion heaters and a sprawling garden adjoining the tennis court.

Mr.Sykes who was on lower Sheikalmudi Estate would say that whenever he called the Murgalli office Mr. Stewart would pick up the phone. Everyone thought that this man was the most loyal and dedicated manager of E&S. Sykes later discovered that it was not so. One day when Sykes went to Murgalli office to meet Stewart he was told that he was at the bungalow. At the bungalow Stewart was sun basking next to the swimming pool with a phone beside him which was an extension of the office phone. Stewart always believed that whether you worked or not the tea bush still grew.

The poor bulls had to lug the merchandise up the hills and traverse all the 40 hairpin bends before they reached Valparai on Saturday evening....

  There were very few grocery shops in Valparai that catered to the needs of the estate labour from all the 42 estates that belonged to seven corporates. The dorais and dorsanis frequented the sprawling Spencer & Co in the middle of Valparai town. The store provided everything except textile goods. The manager of the store Mr.Martin, all suited and booted, would welcome you with a smile. The store was well stocked and you could get anything special from Madras if advance orders were placed with Mr.Martin. 

There were not many trucks plying from the plains to the hills. Most of you will be surprised that all grocery items, vegetables, fruits etc for the Valparai Sunday market were transported by bullock carts from Pollachi after the weekly shanty on Thursdays . The poor bulls had to lug the merchandise up the hills and traverse all the 40 hairpin bends before they reached Valparai on Saturday evening. During the night while the cartman slept the bulls would walk without stopping and reach Valparai. There was an extra fitting in these carts and that was a boomerang shaped wooden piece tied by strings right behind the wheels. These wooden pieces dragged on the road and prevented the cart from rolling backwards in case the bulls were unable to haul the load.

There were quite a few frivolous expat asst superintendents who would stop their bikes on the ghat road at night and untie the bulls while the cart man slept. Poor cartman would realize the bulls are missing and would find himself parked on the ghat road the next morning. 

The Anamallai Club perched atop a hill with a beautiful driveway, was an aesthetically designed club house with a verandah, a lobby and bar (with a fire place), a beautiful sunken ballroom with a wooden floor, a ladies room, a small stage for music shows and plays, and a billiards room.

When you step on to the rear long verandah you have the card room on one end with a men’s restroom. At the other end of the verandah are the library, children’s room, the dining room and the kitchen, all overlooking the beautifully landscaped garden. The huge portrait of Queen Elizabeth was in the lobby over the fire place watching the revellers.

The members of the club were mostly expats. They were the Stewarts, Alistar Craig, Alistar Gordon, Fairburn, Forbes, Agnus Minotten, David Hughes, Rae Steele, David Billaby, John Walten, Hutton, Sykes, Duff, Jenkins, Henshaw, Cotrell, Sewell, Mayow, Palmer Jones, Tafe sSewart and many more. I won’t be doing justice if I don’t mention the name of Carver Marsh who opened the first plantation in the Anamallais in the year 1897.As a tribute to his enterprising and adventurous spirit a bronze statue (imported from Italy) has been erected on the ghat road near Mount Stuart Estate.

The most important person at the club was barman Murugiah who could deliver your brew without asking

My father was inducted as a member of the Anamallai Club and the Masonic lodge in 1951. He was the fourth Indian to become a member of this club. The first three members were Dr Dharmapalan, Mr P.I.Thomas and Dr Jaychandran, all from Brooke Bond &Co. The fifth Indian was Mr Maurice Madappa. After that many joined and finally when the Indians were the majority in the club committee, it was decided that Queen Elizabeth would be shifted from the lobby to the library. In her place came Dr Rajendra Prasad who thereafter watched the Indian Dorais and Dorsanis in action. Among the Indian managers Hussain was quite popular as he reared and trained a number of dogs in his bungalow. Wherever he went he had at least six dogs in his car.

The prominent Indians were Mr Raghava Menon, Naush Sethna, Dr K.T.Thomas, Bijoy Eapen,George Verghese, A.K.Thomas,Dr Disawallah, B.Kumaran, Dr John Korula, Eric Karumbayya, Dr Narayanan,  Hussain, B.M.Deviah, Madiah, N.M.Sreedharan, M.R.M.Punja, K.S.Shankar, Veeraraghavan, B.K.Muthanna, R.K.Seth, John Heatharall and many more.

 The club days were Tuesdays for children and weekends for the Peria dorais, chinna dorais and dorsanis. A piano and a nice music system was added to the décor and boy oh boy it was always party time. David and Michael chaperoned the entire crowd serving beverages and exotic short eats churned out by the oversized chef Anthony.

The most important person at the club was barman Murugiah who could deliver your brew without asking you...he knew by heart the poison you preferred. The usual dialogue when dorais met each other at the club bar was “Hello Bob, how many inches did you have last night? If Bob said 4 inches,Jim would say he had 5 inches. Well don’t get misled. They were only referring to the rain. 

LODGE ANAMALLAI 106

On weekends the club house was filled with smoke, clinking of glasses, laughter, loud music and all the feet tapping on the ballroom floor, while a small bunch was tucked away in the quiet card room and the billiards room. It was mandatory that everyone should be seen at the club on all club days. Just outside near the driveway was a single chamber for guests and a car park.  The land below the club had two tennis courts, a rugby field with a nine hole golf course and a cricket pitch, and on a small hillock was the Masonic Temple. Interclub meets for Anamallai , High Range Munnar and Coimbatore club were quite common. The inter company cricket, tennis and golf meets were twice a year. The companies were Kothari Estates, E&S, James Finlay, Anglo American Direct Tea Trading Co, Pierce Leslie & Co, BBTC Ltd, Jayshree Tea. Rugby matches between High Range Club and the Anammallai club were an annual event. Once in a way rugger players came from the Cochin naval base for a match.

The Christmas party was something that all children looked forward to.  The dorsanis decorated the club and there was this huge Christmas tree with all the gifts scattered around it. A club member would come in a tractor or bullock cart dressed as Santa. All the gifts for children were purchased from London. The toys were brought in by dorais who went to the UK on furlough.

The day after Christmas was Boxing Day when everyone met at the banks of the Sholayar river for the inter company boat race, cocktails and lunch.The club had even fabricated and set up a special diving board at the picnic site for the swimmers.. The boat race was crazy. The competitors sank each other’s boats and finally the one that survived was the winner. While the boat race was on, the bar was open and cooks from different bungalows would lay out the tables with delectable dishes for a crowd of over 120 people. Boxing Day in the Anamallais was forgotten after the British left.

Akkamallai grass hills, almost 6000 ft above sea level and just about 20 kms from Valparai, was a haunt for the keen anglers of the Anamallais. The Anamallai Planters' Association had built a fully equipped furnished two bedroom cottage with a trench around it to keep away elephants, bisons and the Nilgiri Thar(Ibex). A couple stayed there to take care of guests.

Grass grew to a height of over 6 feet and there were small patches of sholas with plenty of wild life. Between the grass and the sholas there were perennial and pristine brooks with rainbow trout. Just across the grass hills barely 16 kms away was Munnar. Many planters and their wives have trekked across this wilderness with the help of the local tribes - the Mudhukans. Before setting foot on the grass everyone had to rub a mixture of tobacco powder and oil on their legs to keep away the tiger leeches that could suck a lot of blood. It’s sad that grass hills have been now been declared a heritage site and the forest department prohibits anyone entering this area.

My younger sister’s nanny always advised my mother not to go on the first day as she felt that all the actors wouldn’t be at their best...

English movies were screened every Friday exclusively for planters at the theatre in Mudis. Besides this one Mr Sarngapani had a theatre in Roti Kadai which screened only Tamil movies. He was friendly with all planters and insisted that they see the movie on the first day itself. My younger sister’s nanny always advised my mother not to go on the first day as she felt that all the actors wouldn’t be at their best as they would be tired travelling all the way from Madras.

The bungalow we lived in at the Iyerpadi Estate had a shola behind us with lot of wild life. One day my younger sister was missing. Everyone feared that some wild animal would have carried her away. The entire labour force was deployed to find her. Finally after a thorough search she was found hiding in a rolled carpet inside the dressing room in the bungalow.

There were parties galore; Arabian nights, Red Indian nights, Wild West, New Year's Eve parties and so on. The Flower Show was another important event in the Anamallais. Judges came from Ooty to award prizes for the best bungalow garden and also for the flower exhibition at the club. A do-gooders association was formed by the planters wives to help the poor and needy. The dress code was quite stringent and therefore all the dorais and dosanis were always dressed to kill for all occasions.

The ladies, especially the Indians, would make a bee line to the popular cloth stores, Swaraj,Taj Mahal and Fashions in Coimbatore to pick up all the exotic silk sarees for different parties and events.. Planters, when they visited Coimbatore, stayed at the English Club or at popular hotels like The Majestic and Woodlands .The popular movie theatres in Coimbatore were Rainbow and Sreenivas which screened only English movies. Lucky, Davey, Bombay Ananda Bhavan and the Chinese were the restaurants in Coimbatore frequented by the planters from Valparai.  

 Each one had different models of cars and all the estate mechanics knew how to service them. One of the managers who owned a convertible Citreon was so fast on these winding roads that his car was called the flying bed pan. 

My father worked in Paralai, Murgalli, Iyerpadi and Paralai estates as an assistat superintendent under the guidance of MrStewart, Mr Sewell and Mr Cotrell . In 1958, he was promoted as the superintendent of Iyerpadi estate and thereafter was transferred to Paralai estate. Tea trade was flourishing and in 1961 each manager of E&S was provided with a Willy’s station wagon costing Rs 22000/- each. In 1962, my father was sent to UK and the entire continent on a three month furlough. Mr Sreedharan and his wife from BBTC Ltd were also in the UK during this time and they had a good time together.  

One of the parties at the Paralai bungalow was a terrible experience for my mum and dad... little did they know that a manager of Pierce Leslie & Co and another from James Finlay & Co were on the warpath.

One of the parties at the Paralai bungalow was a terrible experience for my mum and dad. Dad had invited around 20 people from different companies and little did he know that a manager of Pierce Leslie & Co and another from James Finlay & Co were on the war path.  When the party was about to be over both of them went to the rest room and there was a fist fight which no one noticed until the James Finlay guy came out with blood oozing from his mouth. It was an embarrassing moment for all. Next morning the bungalow servant retrieved a tooth from the guest bathroom. Thereafter my parents always checked with everyone before inviting guests for parties.

Another gruesome incident was when one of the British Asst Manager of Brooke Bond was totally inebriated at the club and refused to get dropped home in his friend’s car. When his friends insisted, he threw his jacket in their car and said he preferred to go on his bike. He got on to his bike and was travelling home followed by his friends in the car. He started racing the bike and somewhere near Sirikundra estate lost control and landed on the pruned tea bushes and was spiked to death. This was shocking news to all the planters in Valparai.

By 1958, ABT built a bus stand in Valparai and bus services were started. The founder of ABT Mr.Mahalingam was there in Valparai to receive the bus on its maiden trip. The first bus came up with sand bags instead of passengers. The best driver, one Khan from the ABT fleet, drove up the ghat road to reach Valparai safely. Anamallai Ropeway Company's cable trolleys from Roti Kadai to Pollachi were discontinued and trucks like Fargo and Dodge were introduced transport tea to Cochin.

In 1964 Dad was promoted as Group manager of North Wynaad estates belonging to E&S.

My parents were indeed very sad to leave this lovely planting community where they had the best of times these many years.

With a heavy heart we bid goodbye to all the good friends and the good times to move on to Wynaad. 

I must add that in the 50s and 60s the planters were the happiest lot. They were stress free with no work pressure, labour issues or financial constraints. All the tea companies were prosperous as the tea trade was flourishing and the dorais and dorsanis had a lot of time to chill out.

*Here is the link to Jaswant's first story: The stories as told by my father (1944 to 1950)

Editor's note: 'Shola' refers to regional forests. Readers may remember references to Shola in stories by Mirza Yawar Baig, Rajesh Thomas, V.Srikanth and Minoo Avari.  

Read more on Wikipedia  -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shola

Meet the writer :

My name is Jaswant. I live in Coimbatore.My father Harikrishnan woked as senior planter in E&S Joint Cooperative Society Plantations in Wynaad and the Anamallais. I graduated from Madras Christian college in 1972, worked in J Thomas and Company for one year, Excel industries Ltd,Mumbai, an agro chemical company for three years and from 1976 to 2007 I was running a company called Growel, supplying agro chemicals to most of the tea planting companies in South India. Since 2006 I am running a homestay in Coimbatore catering to the needs of the international,corporate and plantation guests who visit Coimbatore often.

Is this your first visit here? Welcome to Indian Chai Stories! Do you have a chai story of your own to share? Send it to me here, please : indianchaistories@gmail.com.

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, long, or short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull. 

Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!