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Images
of India through colonial eyes This handsome
volume will surely delight those with a feel for history and a fascination
for old prints. India during the time of the British Raj was a land
of mystery to its colonial conquerors and it is through the eyes
of Capt. Grindlay that these descriptions and paintings are presented. The contents
are an eclectic mix; from the British residency at Hyderabad, to
fishing off Bombay, Aurangabad and the Ellora and Elephanta caves
near Bombay, Grindlay has an eye for detail. The writing is drawn
from accounts of other colonial administrators and the illustrations
are many of Capt. Grindlay's own sketches engraved by others. While the book
is largely focused on India, there is a chapter on Ceylon which
will interest local readers. 'View in the island of Ceylon' draws
the reader to the landscape as seen from the residence of Sir Alexander
Johnston, President of His Majesty's Council. "The house on
Ceylon from the back verandah, of which this view is taken, is situated
about a mile south of Colombo....the front of the house is within
four or five hundred yards of the great Indian Ocean which extends
from Ceylon to the Cape of Good Hope; the back of the house is within
two or three hundred yards of a broad part of the Lake of Colombo
and the great cinnamon-garden, called the Marandahn. The view from
the back verandah embraces part of the lake spreading into the cinnamon
garden contiguous to the house, the mountains in the interior of
the island, and Adam's Peak, which are about fifty or sixty miles
distant from the house." Readers today
may find the distances given rather puzzling, but the picture painted
as the chapter unfolds is of a rich and advanced land. The writer
goes on to describe Adam's Peak and its significance and adds that
it possesses an additional interest from its association with two
moral and political events which may have important effects on the
rest of Asia, India included. "The first is, the extension
of the right of sitting upon juries to all the native inhabitants
of the Island of Ceylon; and the second is the resolution of all
the proprietors of slaves on that island, that all children born
of their slaves after the 12th of August, 1816 shall be considered
as born free. It was on the Island of Ceylon, in the year 1811,
that the great experiment which the British legislature is now making
in India was tried with success for the first time in Asia." Chapters on
India are in the same vein, describing people, places and things
in so vivid a manner as to make them come alive. 'Scene in Kattiawar'
describes a caravan taking a break on their journey. "The progress
of their caravans when in motion, and their motley appearance when
bivouacked for the night's halt, are strikingly picturesque. The
rude and dusky tents frequently supported by the point of the local
spear, the groups of camels, bullocks, carts &c irregularly
commingled." Famous places
like the Ellora, Elephanta caves also figure largely in the book,
providing a wealth of information for readers. One drawback
of the book is its lack of information on the author. The book was
first published in 1830, but readers would have liked to know more
of Capt. Grindlay, who he was, what role he played in addition to
writing this book. A well-compiled foreword would have shed much
light. The absence of page numbers is also irksome But such minor
drawbacks notwithstanding, the book is a beautifully presented collector's
edition, and certainly one India buffs will find hard to resist. Cuppa
that quenches the thirst and cheers the heart These are the
medicinal properties of tea as mentioned by Chinese author and Emperor
Shen Nung around 2737 BC. He was called the divine healer and he
is credited with the discovery of many Chinese medicinal plants.
Tea was among them. In his medical book, he refers to bitter t'u.
He says it grew in winter in the valleys by the streams, and on
the hills of Ichow in the province of Szechwan to the east of Tibet.
It has survived during the oppressive winters. It is gathered on
the third day of the third month and then dried. A keen student
of tea for over 40 years, Maxwell Fernando makes reference to the
early days of tea in this interesting book, 'The Geography of Tea',
his latest publication. It is an attempt to follow the travels of
the tea plant, once a firmly guarded Chinese possession. China has
been accepted as the birthplace of tea and many are the interesting
anecdotes related by him about the early days when tea was essentially
considered a medicinal decoction. It was the
aroma that helped tea to become a beverage. There is the story of
Chinese Governor Huan Wen of Yangehow, who, having experienced its
aroma, ordered seven portions of tea and fruit each time he dined.
Soon new methods of manufacture were adopted to extract the maximum
aromatic substances found in tea. Chang 1 (386-535
AD) in his dictionary mentions that the freshly plucked tea leaves
were made into cakes, then roasted until reddish in colour, pounded
into tiny pieces, and placed in a chinaware jar. Boiling water was
then poured over them. Onion, ginger and orange were added to taste.
The writer
in his quest for interesting tales about tea, relates the story
of an old woman who used to be in the marketplace at daybreak carrying
a small cup of tea in the palm of her hand. The people drank it
eagerly, and yet from the break of day to the close of evening,
the cup was never empty. She distributed
the money received from the sales to the orphans and beggars that
frequented the streets. The people seized her and confined her to
prison. At night she flew through the prison window with her little
cup in her hand. From China,
the writer moves on to India to discuss the 'Romantic story of Indian
teas'. Tea had been planted on a commercial scale in the Brahmaputra
valley of Assam around 1840. The primitive frontier was converted
into a highly developed and prosperous region due to tea. C. A.
Bruce, a former commander of a gunboat in upper Assam who became
the first European to penetrate the forests in the region of Sadiya,
is credited with the identification of the indigenous Indian tea
plant. He converted the tall tea trees into bushes by pruning them
down to a height of about three feet. The young tender shoots that
sprang from the pruned bushes were collected and converted into
made tea by the Chinese tea makers. The first consignment
of 12 chests of tea grown and manufactured in India left for London
in 1838 on board the sailing ship 'Calcutta'. This lot caught the
fancy of London brokers who reported they were better than the best
Chinese varieties. Prices were high too. The writer
next deals with the spread of tea to South East Asia from Formosa
to Java, Sumatra, Siam and Burma before getting on to relate the
'Success story of Ceylon Tea'. He mentions
the first reference to tea in Ceylon made by Johann Christian Wolf
in 1782 who reported: "Tea and some other sorts of elegant
aromatics are not to be found here. Some trials however had been
made to raise these but without success." Writing to the London
Observer in July 1802, Sir Emerson Tennent noted that 'a late attempt
has been made by a naturalist of eminence to cultivate the tea plant
in the island of Ceylon but the experiment had been a total failure'. Mention is
made that tea was brought to the country for the first time from
India in December 1839, about fifteen years after George Bird, the
island's pioneer planter had opened the first coffee plantation
on Sinhapitiya near Gampola. When another
lot of plants came from Assam in 1842, some were handed over to
one Mooyart, the Superintendent of Oliphant Estate in Nuwara Eliya
with specific directions for cultivating them. According to Reverend
E. F. Grepp who supervised the project, about thirty plants were
planted on a cleared jungle patch on Chief Justice Sir Anthony Oliphant's
land in the neighbourhood of the present Queen's Cottage. Tea established
itself as a commercially viable crop in 1875 after pioneer coffee
planter, James Taylor proved on his Loolecondera estate at Hewaheta
that tea could be grown profitably as an alternative crop to coffee
which was then on its way out. After a lengthy
analysis of the progress made in the country, the writer moves on
to discuss tea growing in Africa and other countries. With 'The Geography
of Tea', Maxwell Fernando adds another well-researched thesis to
his list of publications. He first wrote 'Commemorating 100 years
of CTTA' (1995), following it up with the story of William Somerville,
the pioneer tea broker, four years later. In 2000 he authored 'The
Story of Ceylon Tea' bringing the story up to date with the recent
privatization of the government- controlled plantations. Today over
two dozen countries are growing tea on a commercial scale and 'The
Geography of Tea' is a well compiled record of the progress it has
made in these countries. It's written well and can be enjoyed by
the average reader. Lake House Bookshop, Hyde Park Corner is the
sole distributor of the book. Sensitive
portrayal of people and places At the end of
"Kaleidoscope", her book of short stories, author Cadiramen
draws the readers' attention to the cover design. The blend of
colour and design of feathers of a peacock's tail which forms the
cover design pattern is a grim reminder to the superstitious of
unfortunate circumstances portrayed in most of these stories- some
with not too pleasant an ending. She adds a rider: "I hope
reading this book gives readers as much pleasure as I had in writing
it." The book, her
first, is a kaleidoscope indeed. A collection of short stories,
it brings to life the diverse settings of urban and rural Sri Lanka,
India and the Middle East. Cadiramen brings to her stories that
indispensable tool of the good writer; the acute eye of the observer.
She conveys much of her subject and background in restrained prose
tinged with understated humour. I feel she walks among us like a
child taking notes. Cadiramen treats
her subjects with sensitivity. It is easy to sympathise with the
woman in the water-starved shanty-town washing her waist-length
hair in a roadside puddle; Hildegarde, the philanthropist who fobs
off being robbed with sardonic humour; the lovers who find themselves
through the fortune teller's reticence. In her stories,
Cadiramen comes across as non-judgmental. Her characters are presented
to us warts and all. We can take them or leave them as we please.
The success of the writer lies in our not being able to leave them.
Wanting to know more, about Gopal, about the thief in the apartment
buildings, about the victims' decisions were they right or wrong-
the stories lingered in my consciousness, provoking me to raise
questions. The writing piqued interest. If there is
a flaw in Cadiramen's book it is in the punctuation. How did so
many full stops, making a mockery of the sentences, slip their way
past the editors? This spoilt the smooth flow of the narrative.
Like speed bumps with too little space in between them on a scenic
drive. A fault that could be corrected in the next edition. That
apart, I found Kaleidoscope an enjoyable work to read. |
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Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
