Final days in India

I was meeting a tea contact at the Apeejay Group at 10. I decided to wear some clothes I purchased here--kulta and scarf. I may as well wear them while I am in India. Maybe I will get less stares as I walk around the streets.

The Apeejay Group is right across the street from the hotel. They are the third largest tea producer in Assam. Bobby had written in his calendar that he was to meet with me tomorrow. I had written today. I told him that it's not a problem, I can come back tomorrow. He said, while you are here, let's find out more about each other. He had some assam tea brought in for me.

He told me he had done just about every job at the tea plantation and worked his way up. Currently he is the managing director of the tea business. He had just come back from a conference in the UK so today was not a good day to meet.

I told him I have been working in finance and accounting for 25 years, but I am still trying to find a place for myself in the tea industry. I told him that I do tea tastings for small groups of people. I like talking about the history and allowing people to drink several teas at a time so they can compare them. I also told him I have been educating myself myself about tea since the early 1990's, reading books on tea, drinking as many different types of tea as possible, and going to tea tastings because there was no other way to learn. In the states you can't just go to the local tea plantation. I had also gotten certified as a Tea Specialist at the Specialty Institute in NY in my spare time.

We would meet tomorrow and he said I could ask him any questions I wanted about the tea business. He is quite a nice man and I liked him immediately. I would look forward to our conversation tomorrow.

I walked back to the hotel. Then I walked to the BBD area, this time further than I had walked previously. I saw some new buildings including the Writer's Building. I also saw the 1866 post office with its white dome and the St. Andrews Church with its spires. I also wanted to get to the Hooghly river banks. They have some ghats there. Even though I went there in the afternoon, there were people bathing in the water. Typically it is crowded in the mornings and evenings. There are also ferries coming and leaving from the banks. To my left was the Vidyasagar Setu suspension bridge. To my right was the Howrah Bridge which has cantilevers. This bridge is over 60 years old and one of the busiest in the world. Photos are strictly prohibited. I walked around the Millennium Park in between the two bridges and snuck in a few photos as well as a snack.

On my way over there I walked by a section of town that had a lot of tea sellers. There were many people in line to buy tea too. Each store was selling huge crates of tea and you could smell the tea as you walked down the street. Each crate was marked fannings, ctc, darjeeling dust, etc. describing what kind of tea was inside.

I also found a section of town nearby that had men lined up on the sidewalks with their typewriters. There was a chair next to each one of them. I guess if you needed a letter written to someone and either couldn't write or needed it professionally done, this is where you come.

As it was around lunchtime, there were more than the usual amount of food vendors in this area as well. I noticed there were tables set up outside and instead of just standing around eating, people were sitting down. This section of town must cater to the work crowd. It was near several large banks.

I found the tourist bureau by mistake, on the way back from the river banks. I walked in to see what the line was like. The whole 10 minutes I was there, the line didn't move at all. There were around 20 people in front of me. I was looking to get a permit for the Marble Palace. It is free but you still need to get a permit to get in. Even though it was wonderfully air conditioned inside the office, I left. There was no point in spending the rest of my day here. They might not even call my number. Walking back to the hotel was torture since it was around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. As soon as I got back to the hotel, I took another shower and had some hot tea with the a/c on full blast. I think if you venture outside in the afternoon, this must be the protocol.

I wanted to check out this tea house in the Elgin Street area called the Camelia tea bar. I did a google map and it should have been very straight forward once I got on Sarat Bose Road. It was a 30 minute walk. This was a very busy street as I found out. When it went under the overpass, the name changed. So I tried both ways and couldn't figure it out. I popped into the Chrome Hotel. The women there said I was going the right way but I should take a taxi. At this point it sounded good. Plus she knew the tea place and could explain to the driver where it was.

This place turned out to be a dud. It was near the college and on a 2nd story roof deck of a hotel. Everyone was smoking hooka. But all the tea was flavored, so instead I opted for a Chocolate milkshake to cool off. It was probably about 90-95 degrees out. When I was getting ready to leave, I checked my maps for a restaurant nearby that had Bengali food. After asking about three people and actually finding it, it was closed on Monday.

I find the police booths in Kolkata are very helpful. They are on all the busy roads. Sometimes the police are hanging out chatting and other times they are directing traffic. They are the only ones I can rely on to speak English. They helped me get a taxi and explained to the driver where I was going. I tried one more failed attempt to get to a Bengali restaurant. This place was a 10 minute walk from the hotel. Turns out it had closed for good.

Ok, I ended up at the hotel for dinner. I went to the Saffron Restaurant. They had their regular menu and a special menu of Indian/Arabic food. They had a special chef on staff for this. I tried the kingfish with a spicy lime chili pepper sauce. Then I got rice and mung daal with naan. The food was really tasty--both spicy and flavorful.

On Tuesday, I got up around 7 and went for my last hot Indian breakfast. At the hotel it comes with rice, veggies, vada which is a tiny quarter sized puffed and fried bread. There is idly and porridge that I have not tried. There is always chana masala. If you want the batura, you have to ask them to make it especially for you. I asked twice. There is an omelet station, fruit, cheese, breakfast cereal, croissants, and some other items.

I went over to Apeejay Group just before 10. Bobby walked me through the tea process for assam tea. He said they break down each estate into 7 sections because there are 7 days in a week. Each day they pick from a different section. Each estate has a manager and 3 assistant managers. There are about 2000 employees on each plantation. Approximately 10% of the tea is processed the orthodox method and the rest is the ctc method.

Obviously they want the most production from each tract of land. They are always checking yields. When the yield gets below a certain %, they re-plant the field. Some plants are over 100 years old--some are Chinese and some Assam. Whenever they plant new clones, it takes 7 years before they can be plucked. There are always new clones coming out in the market that are more resilient. They try to determine the best clone for the soil and terroir.

They always try to keep the labor costs down by being more efficient. They try to improve the quality because they will sell their tea for higher prices at the auctions. Some of their tea is sold to private companies via contract and the rest is sold at auctions. They track each section of land through the entire process. They don't do any tea blending. That takes place at the company that buys the tea.

I also asked about pesticides. Their estates are not organic but biodynamic and fair trade. There is a minimal residue allowed for pesticides. If they exceed it they can't ship to Europe and Japan which are huge markets. Also there are certain banned chemicals that can never be used. Typically April, May, and June are the months when pesticides are applied.

The auction in Kolkata is every Monday and Tuesday. There are also auctions going on in other cities such as Siliguri. The auctions take place through the entire year because tea production does as well. It sounds like you have to be a registered buyer to purchase at the auction. Typically you would have done your research in advance such as looking at the tea leaves, sampling the tea, etc. On the day of the auction, you would just be bidding on the lots you wanted, by the various producers, depending on the price you wanted to pay.

I asked other questions too, and I wish I would have remembered everything. While I was there, I tried the masala chai tea with sugar and milk. This was the Typhoo brand that is sold in grocery stores. It sounds like this part of their company is headquartered in the UK.

Bobby said it was too bad I didn't have more time in India. He said it would be worthwhile for me to come to the plantations in Assam. Should I come back to India, he said we could definitely schedule some time there. Today was a whirlwind of information, but keeps adding to my tea education!

So I left there and finished packing. Then I took a short nap. I think the heat is sapping my energy here. Maybe I wasn't drinking enough water. I checked out of the hotel around two. By the time I determined where I was going and what I was doing, it was around 2:30. I could have gone to the Indian Museum. But instead decided on the Kali temple. Supposedly this is how Kolkata got its name.

This was a short walk to the metro station and then only four stops. The metro was way more modern than I thought it would be. It only cost 4 rupees. I got off and I was very near the street where the temple was. It is always is hard for me to find places unless there is a sign. I didn't see one. Maybe it was obvious to everyone but me where this temple a was. I was sweating a lot now. I followed a family as they seemed to have a guide. There are a lot of souvenir shops as you approach the temple. Then everyone wants to watch your shoes for you. You have to take them off if you want to go inside the temple. I bought some strung flowers (they were red) to give at the alter. Eventually I took off my shoes. You can't take pictures inside the temple. The temple's floor is marble, but it was by no means clean and was slightly wet.

The person in front of me gave 100 rupees, so he got the royal treatment. I only gave 10 plus the flowers and barely got a red mark on my forehead. I couldn't wait to get my shoes back on. This is a very famous pilgrimage site.

So I walked around a little bit afterwards. I went to the ghat where people are washing in the river. The garbage was piled so high I had to leave. I had heard that Mother Theresa used to feed many of the poor people around here. I walked by her famous center called Nirmal Hridy which offers a little dignity to the destitute and dying. I had wanted to check out her mission but it was open on random days and times and I couldn't coordinate it.

I was really sweating a lot. The metro actually cooled me off some. I found a place I wanted to go for dinner near the hotel. Even though it was around 5, I figured I would eat and have a cold beer since I was so thirsty.

The place was there, but didn't open until 7. Instead I went to Trinca's. They had cold, cold beer. I said I needed some time to look at the menu but asked if they could please bring the beer now. They also brought me some salty snacks. Again, the first thing I asked for was not available. So I settled on rice, chana masala, and tandoori naan. I had another beer. It was so cold.

I met a couple that was sitting across from me. They were from the US and Germany. They were about a year out of college. They had been here for about three months traveling around India. Their favorite spot was Goa. They also had some friends in Punjab and stayed with them. They liked staying with a family, but they felt a little stifled since they were constantly together and couldn't take off on their own. They couldn't wait to get out of Kolkata. They were leaving in two days. They were thinking about going to the Kali Temple tomorrow but after talking to me, I'm not sure they will still go. I told them my feet were still disgusting feeling and I had already checked out of my hotel. The woman was so funny. She made me take her phone number so that if I wanted I could wash my feet at their hotel. They were a little frustrated here in Kolkata. They had gone to the Botanical Gardens at noon and were not allowed to bring a plastic water bottle inside. It was a "plastic-free" zone. So they obliged. But then they saw an Indian family with two plastic water bottles having a picnic. They asked them why they were allowed to bring the water in. They said it's just because we are Indian.

I went afterwards to the Cha Bar above the bookstore. I got a Makaibari tea and some cookies. They had a big lecture going on upstairs. There must have been 30-40 people listening. I wasn't enamored with this place because they only give you one pot of tea and you can't keep re-steeping the leaves. But they do have a fantastic selection of teas and snacks and let you hang around forever.

Around 9, I got my bags together and got a taxi to the airport. I met two really nice women from India. They were currently living about two hours away from Hanzhou, China. One of the women and her brother owned an import/export store and the other woman was married to her brother. Our plane was a red eye and in addition it was delayed 2 hours. We couldn't even enter the departure area until 11:30.

The two woman and I talked for about and hour. They said it was hard having their store in China because not many people speak English. I told them about some of my experiences in India. I said I loved the clothes and asked them why they don't wear saris? They said that no one really wears them until they get married. Some husbands require their wives to only wear saris. They were half joking when they said that after marriage women get a fat stomach and saris hide that pretty well. They said that they couldn't imagine older Indian women wearing jeans. I told them that everyone wears jeans in the US even when you have a fat stomach. You don't have to wear tight jeans though. We all laughed.

Another thing we talked about is that women don't travel around alone much in India. When you see them on the streets they are with their family. During the week you see women walking around to get to work but otherwise it really seems to be a man's world. They told me many women are expected to stop working after they have children. Their thoughts were that India isn't as advanced as the west, but I think it's just a more traditional society. In addition, I had only been to a few places. Maybe it's very different in Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore.

Once we finally were able to go to the departure area, we had to scan our bags first and then check them. We got our boarding passes, went through customs, and then walked through security. I get stopped every time for something different and my bag gets hand searched. This time it was for my plug to recharge my iPhone. Everyone goes through the xray and gets a pat down. The women have a private enclosed area with a curtain. When it was time to board, you get an additional pat down and all your bags must be re-examined and opened.

It was a small plane and I was in row 2. I had a retired man sitting next to me. He said he worked in the Indian government for 40 years. Now he is enjoying life. He does a lot of fishing and hiking outdoors. This trip, he and his 3 friends were going to Kunming for a golfing weekend. They went there last year and had a good time so this could become an annual tradition. There are some great courses there. They would play three rounds over 4 days. When they arrived they would have an easy day after the red eye flight. He said that no one speaks English in Kunming. If they didn't have a guide, they would have been in trouble.

He asked if I had a guide. I said I would many days, but had some free days mixed in. I said originally, I was thinking of doing the China portion of my trip on my own, but now I'm glad I didn't.

We talked about the Indian elections for West Bengal. He said change was overdue in this area. Even though he lives in Delhi, he said that whenever he comes to Kolkata it is for transit only. He hasn't been in about 3 decades. He said the communists in power can't do anything to help the people here and over time this form of government will continue to decline.

He asked me how I felt about OBL. Apparently that is the abbreviation on the news everywhere in India for Osama bin Laden. I said that I am glad he was captured. I know he was terrible man but I'm not "happy" he was killed. He still has many followers. I had heard on the news that they confiscated a lot of important and very useful information, so that was good. Also it sounded like they wanted to interview one of his wives.

I haven't been reading anything but only catch the information on the news from time to time. He told me that he thought Pakistan was completely useless. Not only had they not known where OBL was, but the US could not even get them involved in the capture for fear of leaks.

I don't know if Pakistan knew where he was but either way, if they say they knew, the US won't trust them. If they say they didn't know they look like idiots. We both agreed Pakistan is not really reliable in helping to capture terrorists. They have no incentive. Every once in a while they give someone up to prove they are still helping but these are usually lower level people.

I knew I should have been sleeping, because not only was the plane a red eye, but there was a 2 1/2 hour time difference. It was nice to talk with an Indian that spoke English and was so knowledgeable and intelligent. I have mostly been meeting western foreigners in India besides the people associated with tea.

When I arrive in Kunming, I am hoping where it says on my itinerary "Bamboo and Golden Temple when ready", that they really mean it. I was sad to be leaving India but was excited to go to China.

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