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Images of India through colonial eyes
Scenery, Costumes and Architecture chiefly on the Western Side of India by Captain Robert Melville Grindlay. Reprinted by Sarathi Ltd. Available at Lake House Bookshop at an introductory price of Rs. 3,900.

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.
- R.S.


Cuppa that quenches the thirst and cheers the heart
Good for tumours and abscesses that come about the head or for ailments of the bladder. It dissipates heat caused by the phlegms or inflammation of the chest. It quenches thirst. It lessens the desire for sleep. It gladdens 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.
- Ranat


Sensitive portrayal of people and places
Kaleidoscope by Deidre Jonklaas Cadiramen. A Collection of Short Stories

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.
M.T.L. Ebell


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