Layout 1

Cover:

Baghjan ‘Beel’

Photograph: Mr Rajeev Mehrotra

Editorial / Features

Treasury

Baghjan T.E. ˜ Sarita Dasgupta

Phu Ben Communique

Khanh Hoa Factory ˜ Sakina Hussain

Shabaash

The Memsahab’s Guide to

Gracious Living

The Sponge Cake ˜ Priya Shekhawat

African Beat – Uganda

The Exciting Evolution of Tea Rehabilitation and

Growing in the Rwenzori Days ~ Alfred Omoya

Beneficence

The World Around Us

Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary ˜ Gaurav

Dey

Melange

Narration

Novelty Teapots ˜ Sarita Dasgupta

Treasury

Hunwal T.E. ˜ Rupa Saikia

Gardening

A Rose by any Other Name…

~ Rangoli Wats

African Beat, Rwanda

Supplier of the Year Award – Gisovu T.E.

~ Surender Jhijaria

Cameo

Gautam Bhuyan – a profile

~ Natalie Mookerji

planters@play

The Moran Polo & Gymkhana Club ˜

Simanta Bordoloi

Planter’s Punch

Home Leave 1970 ˜ Phil Bayley

Kamjari

The ‘Hakuna Matata’ of Tea

˜ Bisswadip Banerjee

The Gem Collection

‘Junglee Howdah’ at Chuapara T.E. ˜ Nav R. Thapa

It's a Wild World

Rescuing Rupa ˜ Tanuka Mitra

Health Watch

Depression ˜ Dr Jayanta Konwar

Requiem

Postscript

˜ Rupa Saikia

Back Cover:

Purple Sunbird

Photograph: Mr Anand Wats

Features

Issue – 17

January 2016

Another new year – another wonderful

opportunity to better our lives, fulfill our

dreams, appreciate life’s gifts and brave the

challenges it sends our way, cherish our family

and friends, and live life to the fullest!

In this issue, we feature two of the Company’s

‘treasures’ in Assam – Baghjan T.E. and

Hunwal T.E. – and the Junglee Howdah, a

unique ‘gem’ from Chuapara T.E. in the

Dooars.

As the Company’s efforts to improve the

quality of life in the estates and their

surrounding areas continue, we focus on the

projects in the Mangaldai Circle estates

which have made a positive impact on the

lives of the local populace.

We also bring you latest updates from Udaan,

a centre of learning and recreation for

underprivileged children in Kolkata, sponsored

by the Company, as well as the latest medical

project – Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy – at

Dirial Central Hospital.

Depression can creep into our lives insidiously

so one of our Medical Officers advises us on

how we can avoid being overwhelmed by the

stresses and strains of life.

From overseas, our contributor from the

Uganda estates recalls his experiences when

he had first joined Tea; our writer from

Rwanda is delighted to report on the

popularity of Gisovu teas in Yorkshire, and

our correspondent from Vietnam tells us

about the Company’s newly acquired and

recently renovated factory.

A retired planter now settled in the UK

narrates an incident from the 1970s when

sympathetic airport officials allowed his

family to hang clothes out to dry while

waiting for their flight – unthinkable in

these times of strict security!

How many people can say they’ve foster-

parented a baby elephant? These are rare

and marvellous experiences unique to the

tea estates, just as the term ‘kamjari’ is. A

planter tries to explain the meaning of this

word from ‘bagaan’ parlance for the benefit

of our non-planter brethren.

A rare coincidence this time – both father

and son are featured in the same issue; the

talented father in Cameo and the brilliant

son in Shabaash.

An experienced rose-grower gives us tips on

cultivating this universal favourite while an

expert at baking shares three useful recipes

based on sponge cakes.

The Dehing Patkai Reserve Forest, the only

rainforest in this region, borders Dirok T.E.

in Margherita Circle. A young planter from

Dirok recounts experiences with the denizens

of this forest – his wild ‘neighbours’.

“Work hard and play hard” being the

mantra of the Planter, the club is the hub of

his social life.Many tea clubs are located on

the Company’s estates, Moran Polo Club

being one of them.

The tea pot is still an essential component of

the tea-drinking process on the estates as well

as in many parts of the world. Over the years

potters, artists and manufacturers have tried

their hand at designing and making pots of

unusual shapes out of unconventional

material. Some are functional but others are

purely ornamental. Take a look…

If “each cup of tea represents an imaginary

voyage,” may your imagination take you on

many a wonderful journey throughout this

year as you relish your myriad cups of tea…

Cheers!

Sarita Dasgupta

aghjan T.E. is

located in Tinsukia

District of Upper

Assam, across the river

from the Dibru-Saikhowa

Reserve Forest. It is said

that leopards (baagh) would visit the area to drink water

from a small rivulet (jaan) which flowed through the

estate; hence the name – Baghjan.

Sri Mukheswar Chetia, retired Jamadar Babu, who had

joined work at Baghjan in 1968, recounts that on his early

morning ‘kamjari’ rounds, he would frequently find leopard

cubs sleeping peacefully among the tea bushes while their

mother was away hunting. Although leopards lifted cattle

and goats from the workers’ Lines, they very rarely attacked

people, or even disturbed them. Nonetheless, the staff and

Assistant Managers would pedal their bicycles furiously

past any thicket that might look as if a leopard were hiding

behind it, ready to pounce!

The estate comprises two Divisions – North and South,

called North Side and South Side. The latter is bounded

by the Beel – a large lake – while North Side stretches

down to the bank of the Dangori River.This river was a

thirty feet wide outlet called Ananto Nullah till the flash

floods caused by the outflow from the Brahmaputra

The Dangori River

January 2016 03