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May
18 2006
Jims
initial story
I stepped over the cobbled stones in the little square
off Mincing Lane, and which led me to the offices of Walter Duncan
& Goodrickes.
This
was in March 1949 and I was visting at the request of the Directors,
and in answer to my request to join their Company which comprised of
12 tea estates in The Dooars-West Bengal.
The
Board Room was upstairs and the Clerks worked below. Flint nosed
Directors grilled me for a long while, and I gathered they were
unhappy concerning my very age and which was only 20 years.
Finally
the Chairman concluded the interview by asking if I had any
questions ?. I had in fact just one, and I had done my Home
Work.
I
asked not to be sent to Danguar Jhar T.E. where there had been
recently severe rioting and The Manager left for dead.
This
vital information had been gathered by my family,s solicitor, based
as he was in Bedford Row-London.
Those
who were dozing in their chairs suddenly woke up, and their was a
deathly hush. How could this young Cub from Somerset come by this
information and which they were trying to hide from The City ?.
The
end result was I was given the job, and worked for 12 years for this
Company, both as Assistant and later Manager.
Jim
Glendinning
*************************************************
May19
2006
During my 12
years in Tea in the Dooars of West Bengal, there were two characters
I remember like the very name Dooars, which in itself was unusual.
Its named was derived from a mixture of British soldier and
Indian Sepoy. It meant Doors from Tibet into India
T was outstanding as a Planter, and
F was a complete disaster.
Both were much the same age and
worked within our Company called Walter Duncan & Goodrickes.
T joined in around 1938 and very soon went down with Black Water
Fever and which killed most men.
He survived and one day descended
the stairs from his bedroom in the Assistants bungalow of
Baintgoorie
and queried a large wooden object lying on the front
veranda ?.He was to learn it was his coffin
that had been prepared for him.
The Company wanted rid of him back home to Aberdeen. But the man
so loved his job he begged to stay, and a way round was found. We
had one outlying tea estate of some 1000 acres away from the tea
district and surrounded by Paddy Fields.
He was told he could go there and
stay there.
This was preferable to the story I
heard from a man who joined Tea in Ceylon as a Creeper.He finally reached this isolated
tea garden, having been carried the last 15 miles by buffaloe
cart.
The Manager told him he was never ever to leave the Boundaries
during his five year contract. In fact it turned out to be not
that bad. The manager attended The Planters Club some 20
miles away, leaving behind a rather beautiful wife, and to whose
willing bed the garden assistant would jump.
T became Manager and turned the estate into the best money spinner
we had, and was eventually promoted to Superintendent.
F then came in behind and quickly nearly ruined
the whole
place. He was both coarse and stupid. He
kept two Indian ladies within the Manager,s bungalow, when
it was taboo to keep one, never mind two.
He was one day surrounded by the men in the factory compound and
beaten to the ground and left for dead.
The Deputy Commissioner very nearly
forced the closure of this estate, but the fact F survived did
ease the situation.
F returned a year later as Chief Engineer and turned into a Miser.
Every rupee was sent to an Investment Company in London who sent
glowing reports.
Finally on his retirement he learnt the bitter truth. The
investments were all a fraud and there was nothing. He went into
an iron monger, bought a length of rope and hung himself in a
Public lavatory in the West End.
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