Tea Gardens The Magical Journey Part 2

We started on our trip to the factory after the usual salutations with the bara mem sahib Coming out of the main gate to the bungalow it was still light. A beautiful hue shone over the trees and the magic continued. There were some goats being taken home. A few chickens crossed the road and we had to stop for them. Like everything else they believed in a world where everything was different and life moved very slowly. They were not in a hurry to get anywhere.

A big gate was visible on the left and we realized we had come to the factory. Entering the gate we saw a big sprawl of buildings and so we continued on to the one marked office. A few worker’s passing by had stopped to stare. Obviously not very many people came to this place. The watchman opened the door for me to get out of the jeep. It smelled wonderful and there was a sense of crispness in the air.

I proceeded on to office and was greeted by a voice which on looking around came from behind a door. The gentleman whose voice it was turned out to be the head clerk. A gray haired, mild mannered man with an air of calm emanating from his smiling face. The Bara sahib was expecting me but was in the factory. He enquired if I would like some tea or water which I respectfully declined. I was full from all the sandwiches I had had at the Bara bungalow. He asked me to sit down in an office which must have been built 100 years ago. A great big table carved intricately but showing little signs of wear was the centerpiece with a great big chair behind it. If my area was half as nice as this I would really like it here. A man appeared who turned out to be the factory clerk. He was going to take me around to the factory.

With a few butterflies in my stomach, I went with him. Fist we stopped at the weighing room where I found out the workers bring in the green leaves to weigh and get their dues recorded. After the weighing of the leaves they go onto Troughs which are long and shallow. They had a wire mesh bottom and a huge fan on one end that blew air onto the leaves from below the mesh. The leaves being placed in the troughs over the mesh. The factory clerk told me that this was to reduce the moisture content of the leaves to about 70 percent. The smells there were out of this world. I felt I could stand there forever. My daze was broken by the factory clerk who apologetically said we had to go on.

To be continued…..

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Binny Satin

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