Though life in the tea plantation was immensely educative I was beginning to miss my social life. NC Kankani took me to the Annamalai Club once. I met some of the Planters from other companies such as James Finlay (now Tata Tea), Bombay Burmah Trading Company (BBTC), Tea Estates (now Unilever), Pierce Leslie, English & Scottish (now Parry Agro), and Kotharis. I had a chat with Roy Machiah of BBTC. His cousin Vijay Crishna and I were buddys at St. Stephens. Due to that one meeting I got to play Squash at the Mudis court the following week. Zachariah and others were not members and I therefore had no regular access to the Club.
Nearing the end of my stay at Sholayar I wrote to T.C. Satyanath, head of JT, Cochin and asked whether I could be collected a few days earlier than planned. He sent a car the following Saturday. It was a white Ambassador car but what was really impressive was the driver, Chandrahasan. He was tall and handsome, with a thin moustache (a Malayalee trait), wore a blue-grey starched uniform and stood ramrod straight! He gave me a salute and a note from Satyanath, who was known as SAT to all his friends. Soon we were off to Cochin via another Ghat road which was a bit of a shortcut. Incidentally, Annamallais means Elephant Hills in Tamil.
Chandrahasan drove with great panache and speed befitting his persona. It was a 5 hour drive and we reached Cochin by lunchtime. Sat and his charming wife Sudha were waiting for me at their beautiful Palluruthy Bungalow, set in a large compound. After pleasantries and Beer I had a wonderful lunch with Seafood and Meat and all the things I had missed. I tried to make up for my weeks of abstinence. The Satyanaths were wonderful hosts.
Sat and I chatted through the afternoon, this was the first time he was meeting me and I guess he wanted to know who he had on his team!
My bedroom was air conditioned, well decorated with heavy silk curtains and soft lights – just right for a good nights sleep after the arduous journey, cocktails, and dinner. I was too tired to hear what the plans were for the next day. I woke up, showered and came down for Breakfast. After pleasantries Sat said, “Chandrahasan will drive you to Merchiston Estate whenever you are ready!” This estate was another Birla property near Trivandrum, Kerala’s capital which was five to six hours south of Cochin! I thought, JT’s sure want to train their Tea Tasters well!
I soon learned that this was Satyanath’s way of functioning. A quick decision followed by immediate implementation!
I have often wondered whether Sat’s DNA in business matters had rubbed off on me?
I need to explain to you why tea manufacturing knowhow was important to Tea Tasters. A Taster is required to know all aspects of tea manufacture so that he can identify faults in the liquor which made it taste harsh, or coarse, or high fired or burnt, smokey, and so on.
Tea Broking company tasters would taste each Lot of tea catalogued and send a private report to the Tea Estate / Factory.
The report could read something like this:
Leaf Appearance: Black, with one or two Tips (mature buds), is a good size, well made, but shows a few stalks (stem of the green leaf which gets plucked along with the leaf).
Liquor: Has good colour and strength, but tastes a little high fired (due to high inlet temperature in the Tea Drier), which masks briskness and flavour.
Infusion: Only fair (meaning it could have been better without the firing fault).
However, the manufacturing expertise that JT was now providing to their clients was more elaborate. It meant that the taster was also a manufacturing expert who would spend a day or two at a factory doing a critical audit of the manufacturing process, point out the faults and suggest ways to rectify them. A kind of physician and surgeon rolled into one!
JT’s tried that in North India and met with great success and wanted to offer the same services to their prospective South India clients as well. And I was to be the principal tea manufacturing expert for JT, Cochin and no stone was to be left unturned in my training process.
Estates and Factories welcomed this value added service from their Tea Broker. However, when this became the expected norm Tea Brokers began to hire people from the plantations who had process know-how and years of experience to act as their manufacturing advisor.
After that long drive from Cochin, we finally arrived at Merchiston Estate near Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala State.
This estate was at a lower elevation. There were just about 3 or 4 estates in the whole valley but the place was picturesque and lush with a mini waterfall and stream flowing through the property.
To receive me that Sunday evening were the Manager and his wife, Virat and Neera Desai. They were warm and welcoming and if I had any misgivings they melted away. I was shown my large and spacious bedroom, with the sound of the waterfall just outside my window. I looked forward to spending the next two weeks there.
After dinner I bid Virat and Neera good night and retired to my room. My hosts were listening to the current Hindi hit song – “Nayana Barase Rim Jhim, Rim Jhim” by Lata Mangeshkar made poignant against the backdrop of the waterfall. I laid down and was out like a light!