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JANUARY 2015 35
A
djoining the small town of Doom Dooma in Upper
Assam, lies Samdang T.E., one of the largest
properties of the Company on the South Bank,
with a gross area of 1819.20 hectares, of which 920.45
hectares is under tea. It was reportedly one of the first areas
where tea was planted way back in 1902. Hitherto an
unexplored region for many decades due to its dense forest
cover, it was the British who first realised its potential for
growing tea. Thus the jungles were cleared to set up the
plantations and Doom Dooma town found a new identity as
a ' Tea Town', primarily because it catered to the needs of the
tea fraternity based there. Historically too, this town has
found mention in the Mahabharata, as the Doom Dooma
river which flows through the heart of the town was
supposedly connected to the house of Bhima of the Pancha
Pandavas while he was a resident at Manipur with his wife
Hirimba. There have been many dynasties ruling this area,
namely, the Ahoms, Kacharis and Morans before the impact
of the British in Assam.
The name 'Samdang' was believed to have been derived from
the indigenous 'Sam' tree which grew in abundance here
earlier. Since these trees were the main source of firewood,
the local people would collect just the fallen branches (dang)
without cutting down the entire tree.
~ Rupa Saikia
“
Real treasure lies
not in what can be
seen, but what cannot
be seen.
”
~ Anon
Winners:
L to R: Dr Hemanta Bora, Mr Sandeep Nagalia
& Mr N. K. Devaya
Runners-Up:
L to R: Karanbir Singh, Anshuman Singh & Sachin
Singh (with Mrs M. Deka & Mr J. K. Saikia)
Margherita Club – 6 July 2014
MRIL 5-a-Side Foo tbal l Tournament
Makum Namdang Golf Tournament
T
he MRIL sponsored inter-company 5-a-side football tournament was held at Tingri Club on
17 August 2014. Among the thirteen teams competing were four from MRIL. All four reached the
quarter finals, but teams MRIL ‘Blue’ and MRIL ‘White’ crashed out at that stage. MRIL ‘Black’ ultimately
defeated MRIL ‘Red’ by three goals to one in the thrilling final match.
The individual prizes were all won by MRIL players:
Highest Scorer:
Bisswadip Banerjee & Siddharth Thapa (10 goals each)
Best Goalkeeper:
Shahil Suraj Bora
Most Promising Player:
Varun Monnier
34 JANUARY 2015
Gateway to Samdang T.E.