{"id":211216,"date":"2020-06-16T18:47:09","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T13:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=211216"},"modified":"2020-06-23T19:59:59","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T14:29:59","slug":"an-ode-to-tea-garden-managers-old-young","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/an-ode-to-tea-garden-managers-old-young\/","title":{"rendered":"An Ode To Tea Garden Managers Old & Young!\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hemasiri Perera<\/a> –<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hemasiri Perera<\/p><\/div>\n

Recent photographs and videos following each spell of rain – of waterfalls off\u00a0loading tons of top soil and rivers running red with the lifeblood of the land is\u00a0enough to make anyone with an iota of love for the motherland shudder with\u00a0sadness and ill-boding and shed tears of utter despair!<\/p>\n

The thundering giants of a few weeks ago are now murmuring their eternal song to\u00a0lull mother Lanka as if after a massive postpartum hemorrhage. The red angry\u00a0rivers are once again placid enough for the poor of the land to wade in, frolic and\u00a0bathe and do their chores as done for centuries past. The flotsam and filth of a\u00a0corrupt society are now in the bosom of our once mighty reservoirs slowly and\u00a0surely choking their life giving succor after each and every storm, in recent\u00a0decades.<\/p>\n

We have heard from our ancestors about the first hemorrhage and how our land\u00a0bled for several decades after the colonial land grab of over two centuries ago.\u00a0Though none of us have seen such depressing rape of the land in living memory we\u00a0know what a tragedy it was to open up hallowed land by the accounts left to us by\u00a0colonial civil servants of the caliber of John Still and Thomas Farr. Past deeds\u00a0whether perpetrated by invaders or politicians have to be treated like bygones and\u00a0are best laid to rest. However, that does not imply lessons learnt should be ignored\u00a0or forgotten.<\/p>\n

The soil eroded then was a part of the topsoil, a deposit bequeathed to us over a\u00a0period of many thousand millenniums. Irreplaceable as it was, the land recovered,\u00a0albeit slowly, as new plantation crops replaced the gigantic forest cover that\u00a0towered over the central hill country.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As time marched on the mamoty was replaced by the weeding scraper which in\u00a0turn became smaller and smaller as the weed population decreased and in our time\u00a0almost disappeared from the scene as chemical weed control took hold.\u00a0Waterfalls and rivers reverted to their natural gin clear state as we all have seen.\u00a0This state of affairs did not emerge overnight. Many young Assistant Managers\u00a0and their staff and workers spent long hours in the field to perfect the art of\u00a0herbicidal weed control. I recall with admiration Nimal Weerasinha who\u00a0contributed much during the early days of Gramoxone spraying in the mid sixties\u00a0in the Upper Hewaheta region.<\/p>\n

We now have the misfortune to see the terrible hemorrhage which our ancestors\u00a0were loath to see occurring again. Not only are we losing our invaluable topsoil but\u00a0we are also silting up our reservoirs spanning back to over two thousand years past.\u00a0If the right lessons had been learnt from the past the present fiasco need not have\u00a0happened.<\/p>\n

The political decadence the country suffers from is a dead horse that has been\u00a0flogged time and again but that is not the only cause for the parlous state of affairs\u00a0now prevailing in the precious plantations. While the politicians care the least, the\u00a0plantation sahibs forget the unfolding calamity soonest. Bar a Tissera here and a\u00a0Livera yonder and a kothalawela in between there seems to be few in the land to\u00a0mourn for the life giving topsoil or for the wellbeing of the paddocks that grew and\u00a0brewed the world\u2019s finest tea, as wrack and ruin marches along unhindered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Are we so blind as to not see this lull is only a brief respite before the bleed starts afresh with the next deluge? The factories and other buildings are allowed to rot on their foundations, fields neglected as if nothing else matters except the dollars falling into executive pockets of the Regional Plantations Companies\u2019 (RPC) hierarchy. Let it not be forgotten that these are lands snatched from our peasants via the infamous wasteland act of a bygone colonial era.<\/p>\n

On the other hand hardly a day goes by where bungalows snatched away from\u00a0managers and their assistants-thus demoralizing them, are converted in to gaudy\u00a0opulent boutique hotels more akin to boudoirs of a hooker in a red light zone.\u00a0Shorn of their character and furniture they howl out a message of depraved minds\u00a0to say the least. This is a national shame to destroy these heritage properties where\u00a0the giants of the plantation industry lived and died. The cacophony of the elite who\u00a0sing hosannas for the defaced, degraded mutilated bungalows of historical value is\u00a0deafening as is their paucity of values. Yet not a word do they utter on behalf of\u00a0the workers who toil on these lands and have to creep into their hovels after hard\u00a0days toil for a pittance of a wage, month after month, year after year. It is sickening to hear \u201c\u00cf have been in this bungalow in year such and such \u201cand “I have been manager here and superintendent there\u201d as if the plight of the plantation depends on who was where and when. It is too well known now, who went where, on which politician’s backing, to ruin, (often within a single pruning cycle) a perfect
\nthriving plantation.<\/p>\n

The writer was privileged to be trained by legendary management agencies and\u00a0planters and officials of the mid fifties of the last century who produced an\u00a0excellent generation of tea garden managers.<\/p>\n

A young assistant when first given a division to manage was first taken to the\u00a0bungalow which would be his residence – often accompanied by the wife of the\u00a0manager- to be shown the premises and the first principals inculcated into our\u00a0young minds was that from boundary to boundary ones division was to be treated\u00a0as a garden and the impeccable care given to the bungalow garden was to be\u00a0extended to the remotest tea plant in the in the most inaccessible fields. This was\u00a0an instruction that was underscored with utmost emphasis and later supervised to\u00a0the last letter by these managers.<\/p>\n

Trained under such a credo, garden managers in all plantations protected every\u00a0ravine and water reservation that criss-crossed the plantations with commendable\u00a0enthusiasm. In later years these unwritten laws were taken away to enable\u00a0unscrupulous and vote hungry politicians to plant squatters in water reservations!\u00a0No one can deny that rank has its privileges in every society and in all organizations! The privilege of decent living quarters was extended appropriately\u00a0and according to the status of the members concerned taking into consideration the\u00a0pecking order of the hierarchy in which they lived and worked. Taking away a\u00a0manager or assistant from his bungalow and installing him in accommodation not\u00a0befitting his status is most demoralizing and this practice seems to have been\u00a0practiced with impunity by the Top heavy RPCs. The first step on the ladder of\u00a0descent to demoralization!<\/p>\n

Last but not least the manner in which the workers were to be treated was heavily\u00a0underscored in the list of a young assistants \u201ctraining schedule\u201d. Their customs and\u00a0religious beliefs were declared inviolate at all times.<\/p>\n

As the years rolled by the Tea or Plantation Garden, concept fell away as the threat of land reform (which was inevitable) set in and the gloom of clickism set in with the impending change in the political scene. The credo which spawned a generation of excellent plantation managers gradually morphed into a system of rewarding political sycophants and boot lickers! The men of stature were silenced and withdrew into the back burner as they were gradually and surreptitiously rendered voiceless.<\/p>\n

However, it must be said that in the first few years of post land reform change, the\u00a0plantations continued to be even better managed by competent proven superintendents under the excellent Minister in charge of the industry. But the bell\u00a0had begun to toll the creeping death knell of an industry (with the handing over of\u00a0the management of these national assets to RPCs) which had brought in valuable\u00a0foreign exchange worth millions of dollars for well over a century.<\/p>\n

In a moment of midsummer folly we ushered in an era of decadence. We continue\u00a0to harvest in abundance the fallout from misrule and corruption, all of which is due\u00a0to reckless changes made to a proven system of Westminster type of democracy\u00a0forced on us sans a mandate for such change.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, the plantation Raj regrettably fell into the clutches of the so\u00a0called President’s Men. It was mayhem from there on, to the extent that even\u00a0scoundrels who stooped to such reprehensible behavior as to heckle and jeer in\u00a0filthy fowl language the first woman Prime Minister of the world, was considered a\u00a0fitting qualification for those to be given jobs that decided the fate of our senior\u00a0managers but also the fate of vast extents of land and blocks of real estate worth\u00a0millions of dollars, which were later disposed at their whim and fancy. Though this\u00a0TREASON is now history, the after effects on the plantation industry continues to\u00a0reverberate and has had dire consequences on the well being of the prime land of\u00a0the plantations and those who toil day after day with little or no hope of bettering\u00a0their lot! The tragedy is that on top of all this misery comes the loss of the topsoil\u00a0that nurtures these helpless people.<\/p>\n

I crave the reader’s indulgence and ask you to permit me to pay tribute to some\u00a0giants of yesteryear going back to almost six decades. Men and their spouses of\u00a0stature and character now seldom seen in this era of corruption and degradation!\u00a0It has been my privilege to have known, learned and worked with plantation\u00a0industry colossi such as Albert Imray Allen, L. S. Perera, M.C.Bostock, Allen\u00a0Cameron, R.A.Lushington, Dick Hazell, Roy Cameron, Barry Cameron, Selwyn\u00a0Prior, Vivian Blaze, Wimal Wickramasinha, Ralston Tissera, Tiger Thyiagaraja,\u00a0Maithree Gunawardena, Boyd-Moss clan, Tusker Ted Norris, Peter Baxter, Ana\u00a0Jayasekera, Cecille de Silva, Maurice Herman,W. T. Williams, Jack Van Twest, A.\u00a0Kunanayagam, J. K. C. Gunasekara,\u00a0and many others \u00a0who are no more. The clan\u00a0of Tisseras deserves special mention for their unique approach and success.\u00a0Lastly as an octogenarian I bow with reverence and salute the “Last of the\u00a0Mohicans” who are still with us namely Sam Rajiah, Jim Amarasinghe, Bhathiya\u00a0Jayaratne, Ben Anandaappa,Vernon Tissera, Tissa Bandaranayake, Ken Murray\u00a0 <\/span>and a host of others we are fortunate enough to have with us. The list is too numerous to mention here. May they be given an opportunity to resurrect the bleeding corpse which was once the biggest money spinner of the nation!<\/p>\n

I exhort the young men of today to turn the pages back to harvest from the wealth\u00a0of experience of these charismatic men of yesteryear because with availability of\u00a0modern technological knowhow the sky is the limit for the industry and they must\u00a0fight with all the strength they can summon, to stop the imminent fragmentation of\u00a0the plantations for the benefit of politicians and their cronies. The fate of the\u00a0Hantane Tea garden is a glaring fiasco of recent decades! Let this not be the fate\u00a0that hovers over the plantation Industry of Mother Lanka!<\/p>\n

The rot set in when factories in little plantations centered in microclimatic\u00a0valleys were closed down, vandalized and sold for scrap to pander to the egos\u00a0of those who wanted to lord over empires thus destroying the variety of the tea\u00a0industry where a thousand flowers bloomed as in the vine industry in other\u00a0countries. I repeat let the microclimatic niches of which there are hundreds in\u00a0Lanka, bloom into a myriad blossoms to cater to every tea drinking palate on\u00a0the globe.<\/p>\n

Usher in the age old art of picking tea leaves and ditch the stripping that is the\u00a0scourge that nurtures the refuse tea mafia. Move away from the tar like\u00a0decoction laced with chemicals that is touted as Tea. Cultivation of tea is a\u00a0culture to be nurtured\u00a0and\u00a0achieved. Manufacture is an art and brewing is a finesse as is drinking the golden brew – a ritual!<\/p>\n

To produce the ambrosia of the gods as in days gone by, decide to ask for\u00a0leadership in politics and not POLITICAL INTERFERENCE. A phoenix will\u00a0arise from the wreckage we see today. That is the only hope.<\/p>\n

We have to turn the pages back to harvest from the wealth of experience of\u00a0these charismatic men of yesteryear because with availability of modern\u00a0technological knowhow the sky is the limit for the industry and the new\u00a0generation of planters must fight with all the strength they can summon, to stop\u00a0the imminent fragmentation of the plantations for the benefit of politicians and\u00a0their cronies. The fate of the Hantane Tea garden is a glaring fiasco of recent\u00a0decades! Let this not be the fate that hovers over the plantation Industry of\u00a0Mother Lanka!<\/p>\n

*Hemasiri (kalu) Perera is a retired tea planter and a manufacturing advisor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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