She, the Producer Today, 15 Dec, is observed as International Tea Day by countries producing tea. What the Day brings to my mind primarily is the picture of a tea picker I came across in one of the undulating tea plantations in Darjeeling when Maggie (my wife) and I were on a holiday trip in June 2010. When the woman noticed us, she came rather shyly and offered her basket to Maggie asking if she wanted a photo with that basket on her back. In the conversation that followed, the worker listed her grievances. She was paid a pittance by the plantation owner. She had to work for endless hours and walk down the hill to the factory where she had to deposit the collected leaves. She pointed at a distant building and said, “That’s the place I have to take these leaves to. A long and arduous walk down the hill. And then the return climb...” The tourists who paid her Rs 10 for lending her basket for a photo were a very munificent sour...
Cerebrate and Celebrate