Monday, July 19, 2021

The Wynaad Story

by Jaswant

Hello again, dear friends! Jaswant is back with Part III of his saga, just as he'd promised. Sit back and enjoy it over a cup of tea - I just did!!

Talapoya Bungalow

From Anamallais to Wynaad was a sea change for us. Unlike the Anamallais, the topography was totally different. After going up the Vythiri ghats the landscape changes totally. We drive through long stretches of valleys with many villages and towns on the way. There are hundreds of small private properties where almost everything is grown. There is coffee, pepper, cocoa, jackfruit, mangoes, nutmeg, plantains, coconuts and even long stretches of paddy cultivation.

Tea is grown only by large companies. The companies in Wynaad was Harisson and Crossfield, E&S, Elstone, Cottanaad, Chembra Peak, A.V.Thomas & Co. Cocoa was grown by Cadbury India Ltd on a large scale. Somewhere in the 80s Cadbury India realized that it was not a viable project and had to close down their operations in Wynaad.

Wynaad comprised of North & South. North was in Cannanore district & South was in Calicut district. Both were merged on Nov 1st 1980 and the Wynaad district was formed with Kalpetta as its headquarters. My father took charge of Talapoya estate as group manager in 1964. The other estates in this group are Cherakara, Jessie and Tatamala. The bungalow was an imposing structure close to 12,500 sq.feet. It is now a tourist resort belonging to Parisons Tea Company. Google 'Talapoya bungalow' and you will find it. Manandhawadi is the nearest town.

Social life wasn't anything compared to the Annamalais. North Wyannad club was a quaint little club near Cherakara factory. The club house had a lounge with an attached library, a card room and a small bar tucked away. Jogi the caretaker was all in all. He was the marker for the terracotta tennis court, the barman, the cook and the butler. Jogi's signature dish was french fries. Cherakara had a natural swimming pool from where I learnt swimming.The managers wer Mr Janakiram of Jessie estate,Mr Unni of Cherakara estate and Mr A.P. Rao of Tatamala estate.

My sisters and I were in Cannanore studying in Anglo Indian High schools, staying with our grandparents. These schools were under the University of Madras and were run by the American and Italian parish priests and nuns. Every holiday whether long or short we headed to North Wynaad. Swimming, fishing and trekking were my pastimes during these holidays. We had a gardener from the Kuruchia tribe who presented me with a real bow and arrows and also taught me archery and swimming too. I was very lean during my school days and the estate contractor Mr Dcruz said he was getting me an Aryuvedic medication to make me gain some extra weight. Well as promised by him when I went home for the holidays there were two Horlicks bottles of medicines which looked like chyawanprash. I was asked to have 1 tablespoon twice a day.

This medicine was truly magical. I was like a skinny superman. I could trek and swim tirelessly and even chop firewood for the bungalow. The energy level was stupendous.I was told that they had shot a black monkey and with the help of an Ayurvedic physician they had brewed this rasayan. My health and stamina levels improved but I never gained any weight.

Parties always comprised of a mixed crowd and were never an exclusive planters' get together. They had the likes of some top govt officials, parish priests from a church, building contractors and real estate developers too. The parish priest, Father Braganza, a Manglorean by birth, was a connoisseur of food. He loved the plantation bungalow parties. The church was located along the boundary of Talapoya Estate. There were a lot of Catholics in and around Talapoya and Manandhawadi . Father Braganza was busy with social and religious events through the week. He had an assistant who was a master brewer of arrack which was as good as vodka. Paddy was boiled and fermented for a few days and finally distilled and brewed in vats that were set up at the church cemetery This drink was so potent that two pegs could make anybody tipsy. This was the most sought after drink at parties.

The top brass in the police and forest department used to organise shikar on elephant backs and also boating and fishing on the huge lakes in and around Manandhawadi.

My dad had two assistants and one of them was Bob Drew, an expat who was on Thavinjal division. Here, there were one or two mines built by the expats who were prospecting for gold. Nobody found any gold and therefore these mines were abandoned.

My dad's Indian assistant fell in love with my sister. Feb 1st, 1967 the wedding was conducted at Alakapuri hotel Calicut and the reception at The Beach Hotel, also in Calicut. My brother in law was transferred to Ripon estate in Audathode division.

Mr.T. Ramachandran was the superintendent of Ripon. Audothode bungalow was huge and just above that was a family graveyard of Winterbotham and family. The story goes that Winterbotham shot his wife,two daughters, butler, their dog and the nanny and then shot himself. We really don't know what prompted him to carry out such a gruesome act. It was said the bungalow was haunted by Winterbotham's ghost.

One night we heard footsteps on the verandah outside the bedroom. I gathered some courage to part the curtains and peep into the moonlit verandah. The foot steps we heard were of two cows walking on the verandah. Mr. K.T .Ramakrishnan who had a long stint in the same bungalow as an assistant manager was instructed by D.A.Cook the GM of the company to clean and maintain the graveyard.

The main chef Sebasi came from Mysore Maharaja's palace...my father had to hand over one bottle of rum everyday in order to motivate him to churn out real delicious dishes!

There were number of cricket matches with teams coming from Cannanore and from South Wynaad. The greatest event was the visit of the company directors from London. Three of them visited India once in two years. Two of them stayed with us. All the bungalows go through a makeover at this time.

The walls, doors and windows were painted and polished. The floors were made to sparkle and even the roof scrubbed and painted. Refrigerators from Assistant managers and some staff were brought to the bungalow to store the meat, fish, veggies and all the goodies. All the booze was from Karnataka and the main chef Sebasi came from Mysore Maharaja's palace.

Sebasi used to work for Bob Drew who was my dad's assistant. Bob Drew had to leave as he met with a bike accident and was critically ill. After recovery, he decided to go back to U.K. Sebasi was an amazing chef who churned out delectable cuisines for breakfast, lunch and dinner. His five course dinner from soups to desserts was awesome. My father had to hand over one bottle of rum everyday in order to motivate him to churn out real delicious dishes.

From 1968 this group of estates had perpetual labour problems instigated by the Union leaders and also the Naxalites. Wynaad those days was the hub for Naxalites and they even had a woman named Ajitha heading the outfit. There were gheraos and lock out and even life threats for the managers. Most of the managers were transferred and the properties were put up for sale. We went back to Annamalais to Murugalli estate.

After three years of rollicking times in the Anamallais my dad decided to quit the plantations . Coimbatore was chosen to be the place to settle down. I have been in Coimbatore since 1971. In 1973 had a short stint at J Thomas and company, and thereafter worked in an agro-chemical company and by 1978 started a distribution network under Growel banner and was back in the tea plantations in South India peddling agro-chemicals being manufactured by the Indian and multinational companies until 2007.

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.

I am planning to write my stories in four parts.
1.The stories as told by my father (1944 to 1950)
2.The Anamallai days.
3.The Wynaad days.
4.My chemical peddling days.

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; maybe long, short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull. You will find yourself transported to another world!

Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!
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https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/

Monday, July 5, 2021

An Evening in the Bungalow

by R.K.Ghosh

I'm delighted to welcome another storyteller to our group! R.K.Ghosh offers us a mixed bag of anecdotes and recollections. You can sit back and imagine that you are in the jaali kamra in a tea bungalow, listening to the flow of talk. Got your cup of tea/ a sundowner? Read on!

Distant Drums

While visiting Corramore T.E. I observed the labour lines were at two places, one near the factory and the other about 2.5 km. away. On inquiry I was told that originally all the labour lines were close to the factory. The group of labourers now staying at Shangrila line ( as it was named ) belonged to a different tribe and they had the habit of playing drums in the night thereby disturbing the other labourers. This caused a lot of resentment and finally the management decided to shift this group and provide about 30 houses. Peace prevailed for some time. But after sometime the beating of drums invited elephants and so, the drums fell silent.

Corramore Tea Estate pix from https://traveltriangle.com/blog/tea-estates-in-assam/

An Experience at Nonaipara T.G.

The year was 1986, when I was traveling to Nonaipara & OJ tea gardens with the late Mr. Raja Durgaprassad, the Visiting Agent of the company. Since the assignment given to me was for water supply to the labour lines, he requested that the work be expanded to include irrigation for those two gardens. During that period, the irrigation in Goodricke Group gardens was at a nascent stage. This was because the then Managing Director did not like the idea, in the absence of quantification of returns from irrigation in tea.

Mr. Durgaprassad was totally convinced that if the crop was to be increased, irrigation was one of the main inputs.

With this view at the back of my mind I reached Nonaipara one December evening.

On inspection, I found that the main source of water, be it for domestic needs or for irrigation, was from Bhutan through a 12"dia RCC hume pipe line about 20,000 ft long and the water was being discharged in a masonry tank of 85x85'x5 ft deep in section 19 at the northern end of garden.

On checking the level difference and hydraulics, it was concluded that the pipe should bring down one lakh gallon per hour whereas the actual receipt was only 20,000 gallons per hour.

We opened up some portion of the 12”dia pipe line and found that the roots of trees from the forest had entered the collar in their quest for water and had choked the pipe joints at several places. The pipes were lifted, the joints cleaned and as per our experience we packed the collar with bitumen, a chemical which roots do not like and avoid. On relaying the pipes after rectification the flow was restored to one lakh gallons per hour. We added a presettling chamber with filtration system so that the water coming to the no. 19 tank was reasonably clean. Since the volume had increased we provided two overflow pipes to lead the excess water into the irrigation flume.

During the execution of the work two interesting and amusing events came up.

The first was an earthen mound near no. 19 tank, which when cleaned revealed a well designed sluice gate which could divert water from a small rivulet (Chinai Nala) to increase inflow into the irrigation canal over and above the water received from the 12 dia pipe. This was built during the tenure of Mr. Gilchrist the Manager, ably assisted by Mr. Asim Barooah.

The vision that tea will need irrigation in the seventies and to cater for it is the hallmark of some of the old planters.

The second episode was quite amusing, as you will read below.

Elephant Tales, Nonaipara

I was staying with Senior Assistant Manager, Mr. Ravi Singh.

One morning the Chowkidar came running at 6 AM to report that in the tank that we had built, an elephant cub had fallen and needed an emergency operation to save.

I rushed out with my team, but on reaching a spot about 250 mtrs away we observed that some 60 elephants had congregated to carryout the rescue operation.

Standing at a safe distance we observed their activity which was like a military operation. The first step they took was to kick out the last hume pipe to ensure that no further water came into the tank. Next all the elephants stood surrounding the tank, and with their trunks started drawing water out and throwing it away. It was a typical dewatering job.

Once the tank was emptied upto a certain level they took out the cub, gave a combined yell of victory and walked off.

Pix of Orangajuli from the Goodricke group website http://www.goodricke.com/tea-garden/assam/orangajuli

Orangajuli

Once I was standing in front of the exotic grocery shop in Loudon street owned and run by Mrs Kapur, wife of the late Mr. M. M. Kapur. I met Mr. Kapur, who had just retired from Goodricke Group as Managing Director, and asked him to narrate some interesting story involving tea planters. He narrated the following story but was not sure about exact date, which I later established from the tombstone of Richard Gary Simpson at Pannery TE.

On 22nd October 1968, one Mr. Dick Simpson, Deputy Manager of Orangajuli TE, was returning to the garden with his wife and just born son. The car in which they were traveling met with head on collision which resulted in the instant death of the child, and profuse bleeding from both husband and wife.

The situation was so critical that the local doctors insisted that they be shifted to Calcutta immediately, if their lives were to be saved. In those days there were no flights to or from Assam after sunset and the nearest airport at Guwahati was a good 5 hours away, The garden management contacted HO at Duncan House Calcutta, and Mr. Kapur who was leading the HR had to rush to Jamair to request them to help in the rescue operations.

Jamair agreed to take up the job provided a football field of a certain size, rows of lanterns to light the runway and the ATC clearance to fly to Assam after sunset were arranged.

These were arranged, and the plane landed at about 6.30 PM. The couple was air lifted to Calcutta and saved. The tombstone of Richard Gary Simpson at Pannery bears testimony to the events.

"RICHARD GARY SIMPSON 22-10-1968 BORN & DIED"

Bagracote Burra Bunglaow - pix from Shona Patel's collection 'Tea Garden Bungalows of Colonial India'

https://br.pinterest.com/teabuddy/tea-garden-bungalows-of-colonial-india/

Uniformity

The year was 1983. Duncans had sought my advice to design the Titikhola Scheme and also to improve water supply in group gardens.

I was accompanying Mr. Ramesh Punshi, General Manager Engineering, Duncans. We were traveling together from Bagdogra and the first stoppage was at Bagracote TE. Those were the days when Duncans were marketing packet tea under their Double Diamond Brand. Mr. Punshi naturally prided himself about the uniformity in quality of tea in the packets irrespective of which garden the produce came from.

At Bagracote we stayed with Manager Mr. Sudesh Kumar, extremely hospitable. His family constituted of him, his wife, and three daughters: two older, and one born after a few years' gap.

From Bagrakote, we went to Lankapara, the host being Mr. Brij Malhotra - equally hospitable, and he had a family of the same size i.e two older daughters and one more, born after a few years! Next morning, I asked Mr. Punshi if the standardization of Duncans Tea extended to the family size.

The talk of product standardization was never discussed again.

Camaraderie

M/s. Assam Brooks at one time had purchased four gardens in South India in north Wayanad District of Kerala, the Manantudy group of four gardens. Cherkara was the headquarters, where the Superintending Manager Mr. Amar Paul Shaw was stationed.

I was put up with him on 27th March, 1992. He belongs to the famous NAIN family with deep footprints on the tea industry. On the second day of my arrival he excused himself from having dinner with me as he mentioned he had an important meeting to attend and left at about 8.00 p.m. I had my dinner and went to sleep. At about 3.00 AM In the night I could hear some vehicles coming. Next morning I met Mr. Amar Paul Shaw and he mentioned that the remittance from Kolkata had not arrived and he had to meet the deadline for salary payment! He was in an awkward situation before the labour.

He travelled to the Harrison Malayalam tea gardens, which was about a two hours' run and met their General Manager, who opined that he had the money but he could not release it till the same was approved by their M.D. Mr. Ahmedullah who stayed in Cochin. He contacted Mr. Ahmedullah, who made it very clear that the amount should be handed over to Mr. Amar Paul Shaw because as per the dictum he had propagated in the company, as long as Harrison Malayalam operated under him, they would not allow any manager of any adjoining garden to be heckled by the labour and they (Harrison Malayalam) should come to their rescue.

Mr. Amar Paul Shaw collected the money and returned at 3.00 a.m. Such camaraderie is a rare phenomenon in today’s industry.

Meer the writer:

A Civil Engineering Graduate from IIT, Kharagpur, Mr. R.K. Ghosh started his professional career in 1962. He has worked for construction majors Gamon India and AFCONS (erstwhile Rodio Hazarat) and has been involved in construction projects like the Modernization of Rourkela Steel Plant, Mangalore Outer Harbour, Paradip Port Outer Harbour Container Berth. His involvement in the field of Water Management started in late 60s while he was working for Bird & Co. for their various Water Treatment Projects spread over the country. Subsequently during his stint with Scott & Saxby, the leading tubewell drillers, in the 70s he would delve into the technical aspects and environmental consideration related to ground water and its extractions. During this period he was also a member of the Indian Standards Sub-committee on Tubewell Drilling. It was during this period that Mr. Ghosh was exposed to the Tea Industry and has since been continuously associated with tea gardens. Realising that the sources of the God-given resource, water, was finite and needed to be efficiently managed, Mr. Ghosh and his company has been immersed in the field of Water Resource Management for the last four decades. In between, along with his alma mater IIT, he has been instrumental in sponsoring Doctoral Thesis on Irrigation and Water Management in the Tea Industry.