After my return from the tea garden tours, life in Calcutta was hectic as I did not have much time left in the City.
Entertaining was a strong tradition at JT and there were rounds of farewell parties that I was invited to. I remember being asked home by Vinod & Lolly Parekh, Dipak & Preethi Roy, Basant & Savitri Dube, Peter & Chandra Naharwar, Prafull & Nayana Goradia, Harish Parekh, and Vijay & Shamlu Dudeja.
Govind & Promie Jauhar were still in the UK. I would meet them in Cochin later in the year.
The younger folk, Deepak Sircar, Ranabir Sen, and I continued to meet frequently, share Kati Rolls from Nizams and enjoy the sights and sounds of Calcutta. On occasions Rono brought Doel along.
By then Mahendra Singh Jhala, who I knew from St. Stephens, had joined JT as a trainee. The Stephanians at J. Thomas were, Basant Dube, Govind Jauhar, Pradosh Sen, Mahindra Singh Jhala, and I. We were quite well represented I would say!
The young in the Calcutta social circle also had a great time partying over the weekends. We looked forward to meeting attractive girls from the Calcuttan society, who would also have their eyes open for eligible bachelors. Many a match was hatched this way!
Moon Moon, daughter of the great Bengali actress Suchitra Sen, was the most sought after name at the time. She was stunningly beautiful!
Amitabh was squiring Maya, a BOAC air hostess with his usual flamboyance. He would land up at Dum Dum Airport with a large bouquet of red roses to meet her flight!
JT’s held a Golf tournament each year to check out the new comers’ proficiency before selecting a team for the Merchants Cup which was a major Golfing event in the City. This was played at the iconic Royal Calcutta Golf Club. This Club founded in 1829, is the second oldest Golf Club in the world after St. Andrews in Scotland. The British Emperor was pleased to grant the title of ‘Royal’ to the Calcutta Golf Club to commemorate His Majesty’s visit to the Club in 1912. Ranabir Sen of J. Thomas & Co served as Golf Captain during 1995 – 97, a rare honour and an indication of his prowess at the game.
One of my failures was at the JT Golf tournament! Some are born with a natural swing and love for the game. They enjoyed spending half the weekend walking the Greens. But not me! There was a couple of watering holes along the 18 hole course, and the brandy with ginger ale appealed to me a lot more than the game itself.
I made a mess of my first Tee off in front of the rest of the office. That, kind of sealed my fate and I never took up the game seriously. Looking back this was indeed a pity, as I was to live in Coonoor for almost three decades where, the Wellington Gymkhana Club Golf Course was just ten minutes away. It was so easy to hit 100 balls during the lunch break, as some did!
On the work front, I was happy to be given the Supplement Catalogue to auction. These were teas marked PDRCNG (Part Damaged, Repacked, Condition Not Guaranteed). You may recall that during the long transit from the N-E plantations to Calcutta some of the chests would get damaged. Much of the tea would be salvaged and re-packed. These teas were perfectly acceptable but large blenders and exporters had enough choices before them to ignore the PDRCNG teas. So, the Bazaar buyer had a field day with some easy pickings!
Since JT had the major share of the tea sold, the Supplement Catalogue was also large. The auctioning of these teas helped us learn the ‘mechanics’ of auctioning. These teas would be sold to the highest bidder without withdrawal, unless of course there was no bid at all.
The intimate knowledge of tea, together with the fluency of auctioning made one a good Tea Auctioneer who has to make a quick decision to bring down his gavel to conclude a sale. An expert Auctioneer would sell 3 to 4 lots of tea a minute. We would count the number of lots sold from start to finish, our speed of sale giving us more satisfaction than the prices fetched for the teas!
Later in life, I took up the hobby of breeding and exhibiting pedigreed dogs. This led me to become a FCI certified All Breeds Judge. FCI stands for Federation Cynologique Internationale. With the exception of USA and UK this body oversees all matters concerning pedigreed dogs, worldwide.
Please click this link to see its activities – Federation Cynologique Internationale
I believe that my training as a Tea Auctioneer and Taster gave me a head start as a Dog Judge!
A judge needs a quick mind and the innate ability to segregate quality to reach his or her decision, quickly. There are variations from country to country but by and large, we have to judge a dog in 2 to 3 minutes and anything from 100 to 250 dogs per day. Anyone suffering from analysis paralysis will not be invited to judge again!
I will be writing at length about the world of Dog Shows. This is a hobby close to my heart. I have traveled to over 40 countries judging dogs at the highest championship level.
As I wrote earlier Calcutta grows on you and I felt sorry when it was time to leave. I made plans to return home to Cochin. It was timely too, as word came that Sir Kenneth Warren was not keeping good health and Richard was planning to return to the UK.
Our Chairman Vinod Parekh asked Govind Jauhar to cut short his tenure with Thomas, Cumberlege, and Inskipp and head back to India. Govind was later to take over from Richard as No.2 at JT, Cochin.
6 Responses
Another great story. You should compile all these in a book. Wonderful reading for a planter like me. Please more stories.
Thank you Hamid for your appreciation!
Wonderful read again.
Having done a two year stint in a Calcutta office before I joined tea, the times of the popular Merchants Cup with its excitement of the various firms fielding their golfers, as well as the city’s social life come back as a flood!
The names you mention also – Govind Johar, Ronobir Sen, Prodosh Sen, Harish Parekh all of whom I knew personally and profesionally. Good days worth recall. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments….
//
Philip
I
Dear Mr Jones,
I enjoyed your rewind of days in J Thomas in Nikhat House. I used to work as a Creative Supervisor and writer for Clarion Advertising Services where Ginny Sen, wife of your colleague Prodosh Sen also worked. It was the period I think 1988to mid 1990.
I had the privilege of working on a commemorative brochure for J Thomas, celebrating their125( I think) years as India’s first and foremost tea auctioneers. I used to sit in your a room with that famous table with carved names, as you described so well. I used to pore over old documents, make notes and get my photographer consultant to snap pictures to bring alive my story.
I was amazed to find a document which announced the arrival of motor cars in J Thomas. But transition did not put the brakes on the careers of the coachmen who operated the horse – drawn carriages of the Company. Not a single coachman was retrenched. They were all trained in advance as drivers to operate horsepower of a different kind..
And of course, the lunch for my daily work there was indeed delicious.
The brochure was called: Memories and memorabilia . It was followed up by a three half page ads. One ad was captioned: To that many splendoured gentleman , the tea taster.
To cut to the chase, I have lost all of the above. I think Govind Jawhar was then the MD. I used to work closely with Mr Setna and very briefly once with Tuhin Das.
Do you think you could help me get a copy of the brochure at least?
Will be most grateful for your help.
Best wishes at the 19th hole! Happy 2021.
I
Like you, I too failed at golf and the 19th. hole was what I looked forward to at the Routledge Banyard Tournaments.
That apart, my seniors Messrs. Rajbir Singh, Kamal Bhagat and S.K.Dutta humoured me and allowed me to sell a Supplement Catalogue comprising 26 lots when I was just about 20 or 21. Those were the days. I had almost forgotten the term PDRCNG, thank you for bringing that back to me. Of course, those teas had to pass the assessment by R.V. Briggs & Co.