The Modern Ghost

by Nandita Tiwari

This incident dates back to the year 2013, the month of February, when we got transferred from Dooars to Assam. Transfers are all well known in the tea community; what was new was that it was our first transfer to one of the Assam gardens.

North view of the Amgoorie bungalow. All pix by author 

And we drove into the majestic bungalow of Amgoorie, taking in the Assam weather, drinking in the nectar of fresh air, the lush green lawn, the colourful flowers and a strange feeling of everything new in and around us.

Akhil (my husband) dropped me to the bungalow and went for a round of his new garden. I sat on the lawn taking in the new place. As the sun began to set, the beautiful rays of light were vanishing and lush green lawn started to appear greenish grey to me. I started feeling lonely. So I moved inside the bungalow and the staff helped me unpack.

Ghost stories and tales of haunted bungalows etc. are often heard of in tea bungalows, and the bearer started narrating some of them, although assuring me that our bungalow was safe. I asked them to concentrate on unpacking. As we retired for the night after an early dinner, the first night in the new environment -- new bed, new staff, new room, all put together gave me an eerie feeling. So I recalled the time-tested technique of backward counting… 100…99…98… and soon dozed off.

The foggy compound

In the middle of the night, I woke up as I wanted to use the washroom. So I groped in the darkness and switched on the light of the bathroom and was relieved. The night was still; an owl screeched somewhere. However, my relief was short-lived. I heard a high pitched, loud noise of someone laughing - perhaps a woman or a child. “He-he-hee-hee-haa…” and I froze. 

The laughter sent shivers down my spine. It sounded exactly like what I imagined a witch’s cackle would have been. I cannot even begin to describe my fear. My hands and legs would not listen to me, they refused to move. My vocal cords refused to produce any sound. I mustered all the courage I could, taking God’s name and returned to bed.

I nudged Akhil a little but he was fast asleep, exhausted from the day’s activities. So I tried my best to go back to sleep. The next day passed by quickly with lots of unpacking, the incident of the previous night forgotten until… the evening chowkidaars were switching on the security lights of the bungalow and compound as I sat in the verandah sipping a cup of hot tea.

To my utter astonishment, I heard the cackle from last night again. Judging from the direction of the sound, it seemed to be coming from near the chowkidaar. There was silence again. 

To investigate further, I called the chowkidaar inside and found the cackle emerging from his pocket. “He-he-hee-hee-haa…”

The mystery was solved. The night ghost was caught. After reprimanding him and asking him to change his phone ringtone to a more conservative one, we went about the chores of the evening. 

Soon, we started settling down in Amgoorie. Last February, we completed six years and have loved every second spent here, night ghost and all. 

 

Meet the writer: Nandita Tiwari

Nandita joined the tea fraternity in 1991 when she arrived in Danguajhar in the Dooars. She and her husband Akhil were in various gardens in the Dooars for over 30 years, and also in Amgoorie (Assam) for a brief period of time. They are now settled in Siliguri.

In 2019, Nandita decided to start penning down some of the unique experiences that came her way. You can read her stories on her own blog, here: https://nanditat6.wixsite.com/rosee-t

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!

Trains and Toddlers

by Gumi Malhotra

Holidays in tea meant going home for a month every year to reconnect with family. Phone calls were few and restricted to ‘how are you and the children’ and ‘all well’. As leave was often granted close to the time of travel and resources being scarce, more often than not it was the three tier on the Rajdhani for us. Many times it was just the boys and I, Sukhi would join us later.

Traveling with toddlers was a blur of sticky fingers, colour pencils rolling on the compartment floor, blankets which slid off and landed...yes, on the floor and a constant medley of ‘Mama susu aya hai’!

The trip to the bathroom was fraught with nameless perils and was an exercise in balance. One infant on the hip, the other holding on to your hand while you kept the door open with one foot, all the time saying, ‘Don’t touch anything’!

Let me not even start on operation clean-up!!

Looking back, I remember mopping up spilt juice, face-down ice cream cups, going to the pantry for boiled water for Lactogen and cleaning the boys' faces with Wet Ones till they shone pink. Looking out of the window and pointing out the changing landscape and birds to them, reading, napping and being cosy in our designated space.

The last train trip for us was in 2003 when I woke up at six to find our luggage gone. Someone had made off with it at Patna Station at two in the morning. Before I had time to feel sorry for myself I heard a ‘Good morning Mama’. I had the boys! Lost luggage faded in significance.

I miss those long rocking noisy journeys when Mughal Serai, Barauni, Katihar and Kishanganj were names that made up the distance between one home and the other.

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. You will find yourself transported to another world! 
 
Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories


 Meet the writer: Gumi Malhotra

Gumi Malhotra

Hello chai people, here’s another attempt to pen down one of the million memories I carry with me. We came away twelve years ago with our hearts full ( not so much the pocket) of such nuggets. We live in Bangalore now and what started as a hobby in the gardens has become my calling. I paint pet portraits. The happiest days spent in tea were in the Jali kamra with my paints, the boys occupied with make believe cars and a steady stream of tea flowing from the kitchen. Cheers!

The Tea Planter Who Conquered Wimbledon

by Rajesh Thomas

A trivia question. Which planter had the unique honor of winning the Men's singles title at the Wimbledon Tennis Championship?

Before you could question my sanity, a planter certainly did have his name up, along with the hallowed immortals of the sport on the Wimbledon honors board.

On a sunny afternoon in London in 1877, a certain Spencer Gore emerged victorious against William Marshall in a tennis match, setting off one of tennis and sports' greatest legacies, known as Wimbledon or simply the Championships.

The settings those days was a far cry to what we imagine Wimbledon or the sport of tennis to be when men played in full pants and shirt sleeves and the ladies played in floor-length skirts, stockings, and long-sleeved tops, where hardly 200 spectators watched the proceedings, unlike the millions of television viewers nowadays. More importantly, the winner did not earn millions in prize money and endorsements! The winner's prize was 12 guineas and a silver cup. The guineas adjusted for inflation would total around 700 pounds today.

Wimbledon 1877

Tennis was still the gentle sport played in the front lawns by the rich people of England over evening tea.

The first edition of the championships was considered a big success and the tournament was set for a sequel in 1878.

Just before the start of the 1878 Championships a tea planter from Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was then known) Patrick Francis (Frank ) Hadow was on furlough* in his home country. He was a good cricketer in his younger days, having represented the MCC and Middlesex. He did his schooling at Harrow, the famous English public school where he excelled at racquets (an indoor game similar to squash).

Frank Hadow being a natural sportsman was persuaded by his friends to take part in the second edition of the Wimbledon Championship. He quickly adapted to the new game and reached the finals, where he was slated to meet the defending champion Spencer Gore. Frank Hadow defeated Spencer Gore in a tactical match 7–5, 6–1, 9–7 to claim the trophy.

Frank Hadow

Hadow noted that Gore's chief tactic was to approach the net and finish the points with his volley: a style Gore had mastered when everyone else played from the backcourt. Hadow countered the volley tactics of Gore by developing his new shot, the lob ( A lob is a shot which sails over the opponent when he is standing near the net, waiting to volley and into the open court behind him or her ), which he played to devastating effect.

The tables were reversed this year. While the rest of the field had no answer to Gore's net rushing tactics the previous year, Gore couldn't cope with Hadow's lob. Sport, like life, evolves, and in a few years William Renshaw, one of tennis's early greats ( he won seven Wimbledons and six in a row ) developed the overhead smash to counter the Lob.

Hadow's invention of the lob would be his greatest contribution to the game of tennis.

Frank Hadow never returned to defend his title at Wimbledon; the only champion in the history of the game to have done so. When queried on this, he is supposed to have remarked that it was 'boring' and 'tennis was a sissies sport played with a soft ball'.

It is rumored that he never played tennis again. More likely the logistics of running a tea estate and travel by ship would have also been a reason for the same. His next appearance at Wimbledon was in 1926, when he was invited for the fiftieth anniversary of the tournament,  and as a former champion he was given a commemorative medal by the All England Club.

Frank Hadow's planting career was reputed to be mainly in the Uva planting district of Ceylon. One of his brothers also served as a planter along with him in Ceylon in the 1870s and 1880s. It is assumed that they were a part of the early batch of planters who oversaw the transformation of the plantations from coffee to tea following the devastation of rust which completely decimated the coffee in Ceylon.

Little else is known about the life of Frank Hadow. After his retirement, he migrated to East Africa to pursue his interests in big game hunting. He had very good success in hunting returning with record size trophies in sable antelope, Cape buffalo, Uganda kob and eland.

No wonder he considered tennis a sissy game.

Postscript
Being a planter and a tennis aficionado, I would be grateful if anyone, especially from the planting community of Sri Lanka if they could add more to the life of Frank Hadow.

*Author's note: Historically, expatriate planters enjoyed annual leave of one month which they could spend in India, and once in three years they were given four to six months leave - or furlough - to enable them to go to their home town in Britain. This long period of leave was given to accommodate the long journey by ship.

Meet the writer:

 Rajesh Thomas introduces himself:
"A second generation planter. Born and grew up in the planting districts of Southern India. Started my career in the High Ranges and Annamallais Planting Districts for twelve years. Had a stint in Africa for two years. Since 2009 been planting in the Nilgiris.

Read all of Rajesh's stories at this link: https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/search/label/J.Rajesh%20Thomas

ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories.
Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea! 

 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!

Glow-Worms and Kawakawa Tea

by Sarita Dasgupta

A cup of Kawakawa tea. You can see the antique stove on which it's brewed in the background

My last trip abroad was to Aotearoa – The Land of the Long White Cloud. An appropriate name for New Zealand, which always seems to have an unbroken bank of clouds lying serenely overhead. It is the most beautiful country I have ever visited, giving stiff competition to the scenic Pacific North West (Washington state) in USA.

Every place I visited had its own breath-taking beauty. While in Rotorua on North Island, I went to see the natural geysers, the thermal park with its volcanic rock formations, sulphur lakes and bubbling mud pools, a Maori village, and the spectacular glow-worm caves. It was at the Footwhistle Glow-worm cave that I first tasted the native Kawakawa tea.

Inside the cave

The Footwhistle Cave (or Te Anaroa Cave in Maori) is a stunning limestone labyrinth beneath the hills of Waitomo, with luminescent glow-worm displays. One enters in the pitch dark and looks up to see spots glowing like a constellation of stars on the ceiling of the cave. The ‘worms’ are the larva-like wingless female beetles which emit light in the lower abdomen, to attract the flying male. They produce hanging threads that look like strands of pearls amidst the limestone stalactites.

The cave belongs to 45-year-old Kyle Barnes. Kyle has more than 20 years guiding and customer service experience. His father, Ross, started guiding at the Glow-worm Caves in the early 1970s. He later joined the Department of Conservation as a Ranger, building walkways in the area. Two of his creations are rated in the top ten short walks in New Zealand.

When I asked Kyle how he’d come to own the cave, he said, "In New Zealand, if you own the land above the cave you own that section of the cave. My father and I helped develop and open the cave as a Blackwater rafting tour in 1991. I started as one of the first guides in 1992. I would crawl up the side passageways and I found that entrance you walked into. I realised it was on the neighbouring farm. I worked as a guide and slowly bought some houses and rented them and in 2007 sold everything to buy this farm. I purchased it and then the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) hit and all of a sudden, I owed more than the farm was worth. It was difficult to keep the farm and I sold off parts of it while we developed the cave."

Kyle Barnes walking down to the Footwhistle Cave

 "We opened the Footwhistle section of the cave in 2010. My father, brother-in-law, a local lady (Colleen, who was your guide) and myself guide the tour. My wife and sister-in-law work in the office." I asked Kyle about the Kawakawa trees on his land. He said many of them were growing on the land already, but he and his family had planted several hundred more.

Sir John Key in the Ponga Tea Hut

In March 2014, the then Prime Minister of New Zealand, Sir John Phillip Key, inaugurated the Ponga Tea Hut, a quaint log cabin at the top of the path leading out of the cave. There is a tall Kawakawa tree right outside the hut. The Prime Minister had planted that on his visit. Kyle says they developed the bush tea ceremony concept to appeal to tourists seeking a unique experience. Visitors stop off for a cup of complimentary Kawakawa tea after touring the caves.

Colleen leading us into the caves

After our walk through the glow-worm cave, our guide, Colleen, led us to the Ponga Tea Hut, where we sat at the charmingly laid out tables while she boiled hot water in a kettle on an antique iron stove and brewed the dried Kawakawa leaves. She then served us cups of the refreshing ‘tea’. As we sat and sipped the delicious brew, I looked out of the window at the Kawakawa tree and asked Colleen to tell me more about the special nature of this genus.

She told me that it belonged to the pepper plant class of trees (Macropiper Excelsum, as I found out later). It is native to New Zealand, and has distinctive bright green heart shaped leaves.

Kawakawa leaves

The Maori use its fruit, bark and leaves not only for medicinal purposes but also as a significant part of traditional ceremonies. An infusion of the leaves makes a tasty, refreshing cup of ‘tea’ which is considered good for digestion. It was drunk as ‘tea’ by early European settlers while awaiting shipments of black tea, but they soon discovered that it served as a great ‘pick me up’, as it was a refreshing and rejuvenating tonic, which increased one’s energy and stamina.

The Kawakawa leaves are harvested and hung in small bunches in a dry, airy room away from direct sunlight to reduce the moisture content. The leaves can also be dried for 12 hours in a food dehydrator set to its lowest heat setting. The dried leaves are separated from the stems (which are discarded) and placed in a pot with water brought to a boil then simmered for 15 minutes, allowing the water to reduce by a ¼ cup. A piece of ginger can also be added to the boiling water along with the leaves if desired. The brew is strained and served plain, or with a squeeze of lemon juice and raw Manuka honey (another New Zealand specialty). As Kawakawa tea has a relaxing and calming effect on the digestive system, it is a good postprandial drink.

Among the many exceptional and memorable experiences I had in New Zealand, walking through the magical Footwhistle Glow-worm Cave, and tasting the unique Kawakawa tea at the Ponga Tea Hut, would be somewhere on top of the list.

Pictures by Sarita Dasgupta and Kyle Barnes

Meet the writer: Sarita Dasgupta

Sarita enjoying a warm cup of Kawakawa tea

"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.

More stories by Sarita here : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/search/label/Sarita%20Dasgupta

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. You will find yourself transported to another world! 
 
Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!
ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : 

https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/

A Cup of Indian Chai

by Seema Anand

Seema Anand tells us a story to celebrate our having crossed the 150 mark!!
Thank you, Seema - love the flavour of this chai story!

Meet the storyteller: 

Seema is a London based mythologist and narrative practitioner and although her sanity is a little suspect she is a brilliant story teller. Seema's work in the revival of women's narratives is associated with the UNESCO project for Endangered Oral Traditions. 

 As part of her (not so) secret formula for world peace Seema lectures on the Kamasutra and is an acknowledged authority on the erotic literatures of the East. In her less peaceful moments she also delivers courses on Tantric philosophy.

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. You will find yourself transported to another world! 

 Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea! 
 ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories

Back in the Day - Part XI

by Shipra Castledine

I am back after another gap! I guess it is because I am now in the timeframe of my last chapter, not living in the tea gardens but still very much in the tea industry and thus very much connected. Our holidays continued to be in the tea estates with one friend or another. The visits to friends in their bungalows was reciprocal as we would put them up when they needed to be in Siliguri. The close friends we would visit over and over again amongst others in previous years were Timmy Randhawa at Dam Dim TE and our trek to Dalsingpara TE to the Circars whenever possible.

We first started spending weekends at Timmy’s assistant’s bungalow when he was a bachelor. We would be comfortably put up in his large ground floor bedroom with a bathroom on that floor. Now, if any of you know Timmy you know that he was kind of OCD. Let me give you an example. Timmy would question if you did not clean out a tomato sauce bottle top before screwing it back on! So this leads to a funny incident which brings a laugh every time I recall it. The bathroom we used had a tub and a shower over the tub. There was a shower curtain that you drew around the bath so water did not slop all over the bathroom. We had all finished our baths and were outside enjoying the garden. Tubloo, my late husband, was the last to have his shower. I’m not sure why but I think Timmy came downstairs to check everything was alright for his guests and in that he visited the bathroom. As he came out to be with us his first question to Tubloo was ‘why didn’t you draw the shower curtain?’ I don’t think Tubloo deigned to reply. Timmy would have repeated the question to Tubloo a number of times in the course of the rest of the day ha ha.. I can walk into Timmy’s mind and envisage his horror at seeing water all over the bathroom floor!

And to this day we cannot forget Timmy’s cook Bahadur’s meringue custard! It would come to the table at the end of a wonderful dinner, in a big Pyrex baking dish, hot with wonderfully charred swirled blobs of meringue over a delicious baked caramel custard! I have never had anything that good since! And another thing I remember as a speciality at Timmy’s bungalow was a breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast which was a creamy mound of scrambled eggs on a well browned fried slice of bread! You were served toast separately too.

In the memories I must take you all back to Ozzie and Chinny and our special connection with them. I am talking of the year Chinny got pregnant and decided to go ahead with the baby at the age of 45 I think it was. Chinny, you can correct me if I am wrong. Then started the visits to her doctor in Siliguri. It meant that they would need to stay overnight in Siliguri and we gladly had them stay with us. We shared Chinny’s term of pregnancy with her. The trials of being at her age and yet wonderfully bearing the pregnancy.

Came the final days. Chinny’s due date was nigh. They prepared to stay at our place till Chinny needed to go into hospital. The day / night Raoul was born Chinny visited her doctor in the day and he told Ozzie to go back to the garden as the baby was a long way in coming. So off Ozzie drove. Well, as babies do, Raoul decided to come into the world that night! Tubloo and myself took Chinny in to the hospital and waited, pacing the floor like expectant parents! It wasn’t too long later that Dr Mukherjee I think it was came out and announced that Chinny had had a healthy baby boy! It was SO exciting for us! And we felt so bad for Ozzie not being there. Ozzie came back the next day and I am sure he was the proudest Dad. We still have the beautiful painting that Chinny presented us.

Chinny's painting on the wall at the back

Ozzie and Chinny followed up with more visits to Siliguri for baby check ups. These connections are lifelong. I re-connected to Chinny on Facebook several months ago after a long long gap and the warmth and feelings were just the same. I know I can visit them in Chandigarh whenever it is possible and the hospitality will be the same as we had in Dalsingpara TE. So much life has happened in between and life changes. It is very comforting to find people like Ozzie and Chinny who are just the same.

My daughters have perhaps a stronger connection to tea as it is more recent and they were brought up in their formative years in Siliguri. They recall times spent in Siliguri with a great deal of fondness and homesickness. It was not only the beautiful surroundings that we lived in but the quality of life. And as Tubloo and I were both tea baba-s our children felt at home in the tea estates. When we recall memories from our years in Siliguri they remember the picnics and the food we all pooled in. One family outdoing the other. One spot in particular we would visit was a divine spot we named Carritt’s Beach. It was past the Coronation Bridge on Sevoke Road and on the road to Kalimpong and Sikkim. We would park our cars on the top and trek down to the Teesta river. It wasn’t an easy trek down but we all managed along with alcohol and food and rugs to sit on. It was incredibly beautiful. I can’t even tell you how many times we had a picnic there. Not to mention the moonlit picnics we would have to other easier access spots on the same road around the mountains. Hard to imagine these blessings we had, to take full advantage of mother nature in all ways. The bounty of her landscape, the fresh produce we enjoyed, the climate.

On Carritt's Beach

Another picnic spot my daughters remember is one that was closer to Siliguri. I can’t quite recall which direction it was but we would bump along kanchha paths to reach a big ‘jhora’, not quite a river but a strong flowing stream with plenty of rocks in it. On a hot day we would all just get in the water and sit on those rocks, have chilled beer and drinks and the food would be passed around in their containers. One of these times my daughters never forget and neither do I, is one where one of the ladies had brought delicious large jumbo prawns simply cooked in garlic and chilli. OMG, sitting in that cold water and eating those incredibly succulent, delicious hot huge prawns was heaven! These sorts of days went by in a wave of hilarity and enjoyment. The world has become so difficult now. I wish we could reinvent days like those.

One occasion we always remember is a day all the tea broker families who were living in Siliguri decided to get together for a men’s cook off. The menu was Khao Suey with all the garnishings. Naturally much alcohol was imbibed, cricket was set up on the lawns of the selected house we were having the day in. Pre lunch drink time went by, lunch time went by, tea time went by and the men weren’t finished with their cooking!! Loud men’s voices in the kitchen arguing over the progress (or non-progress) of the cooking emanated and the girls and children were getting famished. Ladies visited the kitchen from time to time to give their advice but were shoo-ed away! Guess what time we finally ate lunch!! 6pm ha ha Was it worth the wait??? Debatable but it was a memorable day! If you have eaten Khao Suey you know that it is a challenge not to dribble gravy! Rajiv Puri did not dribble! We were in awe of his fastidiousness!! Regardless of the time, we had double helpings and the dekchi of chicken Khao Suey was emptied!

If I were to enumerate all the wonderful outings and drives it would truly fill up a book. I am sure some of these recollections will resonate. More in my next….

MEET THE WRITER:

'My name is Shipra Castledine nee Shipra Bose (Bunty). My parents were Sudhin and Gouri Bose. I am a tea 'baba' of the 1950-s era. I spent a part of my life growing up in the Dooars and another large part of my life married to a tea planter's son the Late KK Roy son of PK and Geeta Roy of Rungamuttee TE in the Dooars. I continued to be in the tea industry for many years as KK was a tea broker till he passed away in 1998.' Read all Shipra's posts here: https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/search/label/Shipra%20Castledine

 
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. You will find yourself transported to another world! 

 Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea! 
 ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories

Seema's Chalice

The very first video story on Indian Chai Stories - you will love it!!
by Seema Anand

Meet the storyteller: 

Seema is a London based mythologist and narrative practitioner and although her sanity is a little suspect she is a brilliant story teller. Seema's work in the revival of women's narratives is associated with the UNESCO project for Endangered Oral Traditions. 

 As part of her (not so) secret formula for world peace Seema lectures on the Kamasutra and is an acknowledged authority on the erotic literatures of the East. In her less peaceful moments she also delivers courses on Tantric philosophy.

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. You will find yourself transported to another world! 

 Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea! 
 ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories

Our Writers - in Pictures!

Hello friends! Take a look at our latest picture collages.

There are forty three* storytellers/writers so far - and we have room for many more!

Collage No. 1, below, our 'latest' writers!
Clockwise from top left: Inder Nain, Shivani Taimni, Bipin Tandon, Saaz Aggarwal

Above, clockwise from top left: Gumi Malhotra, Indi Khanna, Dip Sengupta, Simran Sandhu, V.R.Srikanth, Radhika Tandon

Above, top row (left to right): Mrinalini Rautela Pahwa, Mamlu Chatterjee, Minoo Avari
Centre row (left to right): Mirza Yawar Baig, Venk Shenoi
Bottom row (left to right): Rajan Mehra, Aloke Mookerjee, Danny Pariat

And below, our writers' picture collage as of June 2018.
The names are on the pictures. Last year's technology!!   

Indian Chai Stories' Writers - updated June 2018

A handful of old friends wrote the first stories, starting March 2018 - and now there are forty three* writers here!

Waiting to hear your story - send it to me at indianchaistories@gmail.com
 - Gowri Mohanakrishnan

 If you have come to this blog page for the first time, please keep clicking on the link to 'Older Posts' or see our Blog Archive to guide you to more stories. A list of labels will help you find different writers.

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. You will find yourself transported to another world! 

 Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea! 
 ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories

Happy reading!

Cheers to the spirit of Indian tea!

*and forty two pictures, because we don't have one for  Larry Brown!!

My Favourite Walk

by Inder Nain

My favorite walk happens a couple of times a week, or as many times I can return from work at least half an hour before sunset, which is a shade before seven pm round the year. When it does happen, my wife is always ready & waiting. I am as eager as the dog & we are soon on our way.

Getting out through the back gate, we climb the gentle hill behind the house and take the grassy road between the tea fields. The dog bounds on ahead chasing after birds. The 'caucal', a biggish brown bird, is the most vulnerable. The caucal makes its nest among the tea bushes. It has a low, clumsy flight. The dog does manage to knock one down once in a while when he takes it by surprise. Fortunately he doesn’t know what to do after that. With me yelling and screaming at him to leave the bird alone, he runs away quite content with the outcome of the game and the frightened bird scurries off into the bush.

Wife and I hurry along. The grass is still wet from the afternoon showers & our sneakers are soon soaked through. We talk continuously. The topics are many and varied. I tell her a little about work, she tells me a lot about her day, the children and their school, about our friends and everything else. 

It is wonderful; I soak in the stories and the scenery. Hills stretch into the distance in varying shades of green and blue. The land falls away towards the east. The view of this vast expanse is overwhelming. The rains have been good and it is green and lush everywhere. The cypress trees are tall and heavy with all the moisture. A gust knocks some water on to us as we pass. We walk on with the water now going 'squish, squish' in our shoes.

Suddenly the sun is in the gap between the clouds & the opposite hills. The whole area is bathed in the evening sunlight. The yellowish green of the tea bushes spread like carpets across the hills glimmers and glows as it catches the sun at that angle. The patches of red cannas scattered around the tea fields are ablaze. We stop and admire the grandeur as we have done so many times before, amazed at the beauty. The dog is still running up and down the road chasing after every sound and smell that tickles his senses. We reach the end of the road and turn around; the sun catches us straight in our faces. We pull our caps down a little to avoid the glare and start the walk back. The return, about one and a half kilometres, must be covered fast, as the sun will sink quickly now. We talk more than we look and walk fast.

A pale gray hue descends upon the valley as the sun vanishes behind the hills. I yell for the dog as we approach the house. The jackals will be out soon. The night sounds are picking up. The crickets start their cacophony, the doves coo as they settle back into their nests. The auger buzzard has taken post for the night on a telephone post opposite the house. A cold light mist is all around as we return through the back gate. The lights are flickering on. "Mbili, chai, please", my wife tells the cook as we peel our drenched shoes and socks off. Another wonderful walk .

 Pix of Kipkebe tea plantation at Kericho, Kenya, courtesy Shashi Menon

Meet the writer: Inder Nain

Inder in his own words: 

Inder's life & times
Little brains & ample mind,
No common sense to hold me behind,
I push on..

Lucky breaks & simple takes,
Keeps me smelling the roses - 
and whisky's fine,
Leaving little room to whine.

And here is the 'practical version' as his wife calls it: 
Inder Nain worked for Goodricke Tea for 15 years in the Dooars and Assam before moving to Kenya in 2000. He worked with Sasini tea and coffee before moving on to start his own rose farm in 2006.  He is now successfully settled in Kenya growing roses.

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!
ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : 

https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/

New Pioneers

by Bipin Tandon

In the second half of the 80's, efforts were being made to bring Arunachal on  to the tea map. One enterprising man Mr.Basant Dube had taken the lead. He had persuaded an influential politician to plant a garden.

I got a call SOS at Lucknow, where I was living after a sack from DUNCANS after 19 years of service. I was disappointed with tea and was trying other means of making a living. However Mr. Dube told me come as leave vacancy for not over a month, as his manager had developed some medical problem. He would be back soon.

I could not turn down his offer. Third day I took a flight to Lilabari and then drove 250 kms! -to Jonah - last place in Assam. The driver took me to an abandoned saw mill. He said arrangements had been made for me to stay the night there. In the morning we would go to the garden.

At eight am the next day we set off for the garden. After driving 20kms or so we reached a river bank. Driver showed me that the garden was on the other side and since the river had a lot of water we could not cross. I am a non swimmer. CHALLANGE Number One!

I told the assembled locals to get a rope tied to trees on both ends of river. I got stilts made and crossed the holding rope.

We had a bamboo house for the manager's bungalow with GCI sheets. The house had electricity and a telephone. It had a thunder box cubicle with a bucket. Rain water was collected through the roof guttering.

We had a television and fixed what was a sofa for sitting - posts driven in. The ground floor was a kitchen. Beds made of bamboos. This was how we began.

Now imagine what would have been situation in 1880-90s! Salute to the pioneers. What a life, gone now - built up with hard work.

The writer introduces himself: 

Bipin Behari Tandon. Joined Duncans in 1964.
An agri graduate from UPAU Pantnagar.
Out from TEA since Jan.2018.

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. You will find yourself transported to another world! 

 Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea! 
 ADD THIS LINK TO YOUR FAVOURITES : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/Indian Chai Stories