The Hindu Business Line : The Makaibari legend

"Captain Samler looked around him. The military outpost at Tetuliya, though outwardly spick and span, was twotiered. The British officers enjoyed all the trappings of conquering rulers, while the natives, impeccable in khaki and Gurkha hats, were herded in barrack dormitories, adequately nourished with bland rice and lentils, and were bullied to execute all the dirty work - from menial drudgery to ferocious fighting in the battlefield. He bore this stoically for five years and then something snapped. One moonlit evening, he broke free. Together with ten Gurkha sepoys, he raided the armoury and decamped". This is the first paragraph of a delightful and instructive book on an aspect of tea history and cultivation in Darjeeling, the author, Swaraj Kumar Banerjee (the Rajah Banerjee of Makaibari), too having broken free from the shackles of the conventional methods of tea plantation about four decades ago, in the process setting in motion in his part of the world up in the hills an organic movement which is progressing in leaps and bounds today.

`ORGANIC EKTA'

The colourful book ends with the following paragraph: "The movement of `Organic Ekta' is a Makaibari joint venture with CHAI (Community Health Advancement Initiative) and Darjeeling Earth Group. The two NGOs work with a continually growing list of small farmers of the Darjeeling region and monitor the growing of herbs, fruits, vegetables, cereals and tea organically. The use of biogas as a fuel alternative has captured the imagination of these growers - which portends considerable hope for greening the Darjeeling region to its splendour of yore. Coupled with numerous innovative marketing impulses, a new era of sustainable entrepreneurship is witnessing its dawn - for a radiant future".

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

The Makaibari tea estate today, through which sharply twists and turns the old Pankhabari Road, which drops to sea-level from 1,500 metres in 30 minutes, is a brilliant manifestation of effective community development, on the one hand, and the proper utilisation of sustainable energy resources, on the other, which has, among other things, resulted in the teas of the estate being acclaimed by cognoscenti the world over. There is little doubt that Makabari is a successful tea garden in commercial terms, but that is not the point of importance when one focuses one's thoughts on the estate. It is a happy tea-producing region where the owner breathes the same air as the workers, bonded together by a camaraderie, companionship and care which is not easy to explain or describe.

A DIFFERENT PERSONALITY

Rajah, who at once strikes you as being a totally different personality standing out from the hordes one has to consort with on a daily basis, is sensitive and agile with an imagination spanning the cosmos. Consider how he took the decision to leave London behind him and engross himself with the hills. He writes: "The twenty-first day of August in 1970 proved to be momentous. Riding home in the afternoon, Invitation, my prized horse, shied when a wild boar ran across his path. I was thrown off the horse. In the split second that I fell, I perceived a brilliant band of white light, connecting me to the trees in the forests around me. The woods sang out melancholically in an incredible concerto, "Save us! Save us!''. The moment was eternal, and would alter the course of my life forever... I thought to myself, "Gosh, I've been trying to buy love and recognition thousands of miles away, and all of it was under my very nose, for free''. There and then, the die was cast".

Rajah lives in his garden along with his wife Srirupa. If he has to visit Kolkata he does so for a day, mainly to do some work at his export outfit in the city. He is usually back the next day - to continue with his good work of putting people and Darjeeling tea on a pedestal, which is growing taller with every passing day.

RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY