MEGAWALK IN ASSAM

 

MEGAWALK IN ASSAM

BY WARVET

 

Jul 2019

The Civil Hired Transport (CHT) or in simple terms – Taxi cruised past hamlets and towns of Central Assam. I was on way to Tezpur, the cultural capital of Assam to take new assignment (Bhupen Hazarika and a host of cultural icons of Assam are from Tezpur). I marvelled at the beauty of Army that showed you the length and breadth of this vast country. I smiled to myself as it was with this in mind that I had joined the Army (besides other reasons). All along the raised road, there was nothing but a sea of unending water. It seemed that the complete state was flooded. Only the locals knew it was an annual phenomenon in the Brahmaputra flood plains. People were well adapted to it. Houses were on bamboo stilts earlier, now they were on raised ground. Road was as such raised. So it was a matter of time that water would recede and sowing begin. Till then, locals enjoyed fishing in the flooded fields. As we approached Tezpur, rice fields gave way to Tea Gardens. Unending and undulating green carpet covered with tropical trees.

Well, I reached Tezpur, settled into the Single Officers accommodation and made acquaintances. Hooda, Christie and AB etc were my immediate neighbours and hence my earliest friends.

On Sunday we will go on a megawalk! Said Hooda. What’s that? I shot. Megawalks are long walks. We shall walk for 20-25 km. On return we will have poori sabji at road side shack. You will see how heavenly it will taste. Be it rain or sun we will keep walking. You will be drenched in sweat and then your fat will melt and you will feel utmost bliss. Within no time you will be fit and slim and bubbling with energy. We shall go out of town in car, park it and soon be in the garden of eden that’s the famous tea gardens of Assam!

So, next day after alighting from the car at a shack, whose owner greeted Hooda cheerfully and assured of safety of our car we started. Hooda had dragged Christie from his room against all his protestations of paining knee – “I can’t let you rot in the bed on Sunday while we enjoy walking in paradise!” He had told Christie.

After crossing few shops on road side we were in the midst of tea gardens. Miles and miles of uninterrupted green carpet till horizon. Trees that are a must in tea gardens (Needed for cover from direct sunlight) were having sort of bright yellow polythene patch at around 1 mtr height wrapped around them. “Those are insect trapping patches, they attract insects who get stuck to glue on them” Said Hooda. “And it also gives indication of growth of the tea plants – that they are ready to be plucked” added Christie. We reached a football ground along which was a hospital. It was a single storey bungalow like building with slanting roof. Alongside was an OPD ward and an isolation ward, school, Staff club , a creche. A board indicated a track to to Managers Bungalow and staff quarters. These Tea Gardens are like communes.

While whole of Assam is inundated by flood waters, Tea gardens are always dry. They are always planted on high ground and are criss crossed by drains. I marvelled at the British planters who more than 150 yrs ago cleared the jungles and planted the tea. All labour was brought from tribal areas of Jharkhand/ Chhatisgarh or Orissa, ethnic Assamese don’t work in tea gardens. These tea labourers are hereditary workers whose grandparents were brought here by Britishers who were granted huge tracts of jungle for tea plantation. Britain was losing loads of wealth for tea from China. Chinese guarded the tea plants like treasure. Some adventurous Britisher had roamed in Tea growing China under disguise for months and smuggled the precious plant to India against all odds and risk. The saplings were planted first in Dehradoon. Then Kumaon and Himachal where they didn’t thrive. Finally success smiled on Britishers in Assam and millions of acres came under plamtation. Now there was no need to balance the loss of exchequer with forced opium sale in China!!!

We came across some low-lying area where ladies were planting paddy. They seemed like plantation workers only who may be allowed to sow the low-lying area for personal consumption. A little further were quarters for labourers. It looked like a village. There was a temple along road. A garishly painted wooden parrot atop a small gazebo caught my eye. The temple deity looked odd. It was a couple. But the male had a rifle resting along his side. On further scrutiny we found it was a soldier in green dress with belt and all.

All the houses were having similar small toilet in the backyard. Looks like “Modi Swachhta toilet” I thought aloud. It’’s all a fraud! Said Hooda. What do you mean? It’s there in front of you. For the first time poor ladies and girls are getting      privacy and sceptics can’t appreciate! Retorted I. It’s a scam. They are non functional. Money wasted – Said Hooda. Ok lets see, Hey! Whats your name ? I asked a lad standing near us. Ramesh, He Said. Ok what do you do? I’m studying in BSC First Yr in Ranga para. My parents are tea workers. How much do they earn ? Around Rs 4000/- each. He Said. So, who built these toilets and how many of them are functional? Are they useful  ? I asked. Panchayat has provided these toilets, most of them are functional. They are very useful, especially for ladies, Ramesh told us. The tea labour gets a pittance and barely makes ends meet. But they get house, rations, school, hospital and hereditary claim to job. The industry is perpetually in loss due to competition from Sri Lanka, China and Africa. It was heartening to see the progress. Ducks, hen, Goats, small cows, and piglets were seen near houses. A triplet of piglets, cutely looking at me made a dash as I tried to photograph them.

We crossed a tea factory inhaling the aroma of the tea in air. You know the Brits came up with all these gardens to supply tea to Europe. Indians then didn’t take tea! It was due to early 20th century depression that huge stock of tea piled up in India. Then the brits opened tea stalls at railway stations to promote tea drinking. And today India must be consuming most of the tea produced in the world. Even in sweltering Chennai heat I found tea was very popular. Interestingly, Indian recipe of tea too is unique – so much boiling and adding milk and sugar etc etc. Near the tea garden was a Managers bungalow. One can imagine English planters living in these bungalows overseeing the functioning of these enterprises. These gardens are nicely organised- self-contained, with their own  villages and communities, part of the estate for generations! In good old days, the plantations had their own airplanes for transport and dropping mail!!!

Now we could see flocks of women, attired in their best clothes waiting along the road for their garden bus to ferry them to Sunday Haat to provision for the week. A number of pick-ups were ferrying stuff for haat with passengers on top. Two guys on a bike were carrying a huge freshly slaughtered hog for the haat.

I stopped by a guy busy making baskets out of Bamboo. He was from Chhapra, Bihar and came here every year. He told us that he got a bamboo for Rs 80/- and made 4-5 baskets out of it in a day. Tea gardens bought them for Rs 80 per piece. There was a peculiar basket that was for catching fish. He slept and stored baskets in the shack nearby. A hand pump and a rack of utensils near a chullah seemed to be his kitchen. I noticed a contraption made of empty oil tin from which water was dripping in a pail underneath. He told me it was water filter. I lifted the lid to find red color earth filled inside, for water to pass through it. Tezpur has very high Iron and mineral content in water for which DRDO has done some pioneering work. But natives have handled it their own way since ages. They also use a food additive made of the ashes of bark of a tree adding a pinch in food for fixing the mineral problem. I was told that ash is like baking soda chemically.

From here, we turned back and walking more than 8 km returned to our car and the tea stall. Had tea, water and rest. The owner, a guy around 40 told his father was in Navy. But all 5 brothers are civillians. All of them are “Kalakaars”. He performs on AIR. He is a singer, his daughter reached Indian Idol Kolkata. Adjacent to shop is interestingly named “Rajendra Prasad Hindi School” which his wife runs with few voluntary teachers. I was surprised to know that they get no monetary support from Government and can not charge fee from Children as it’s a “Venture”. Someday, Govt will adopt it and start supporting. Though we were deeply interested in its functioning, being very tired we made a move. Hooda expressed to the lady a desire to visit school someday and try to help them.

To be Contd.