by
Munem Wasif
Tainted
Tea
Estate
— maybe just a word, and yet words have their own tales. Picturesque plush
green fields, healthy livestock grazing, and that grand mansion, are all etched
in popular history. Yet, there are tales of lives which have remained shaded,
in fact shadowed, under clouds that caress either the fertile fields, or for
that matter the flowing hills of Tea Estates of Assam in India, or Sylhet and
Hobiganj in Bangladesh. They are the tales of cornered lives, chronic poverty
and chained hope. This is the tale of 'Tainted Tea'.
This
page
Left:Champa
is on the porch of her house with her favorite pet bird, Moyna. Surrounded by
her two sons, the rain drenched hills and the sky over the Kapai Garden of Lashkarpur
Estate seem like the home of joy.
Middle: Niranjan and his granddaughter walk home under the dying light
of the afternoon. It was talabbar (payday), and with a sack of wheat resting
on his head, three generations of Kapai Garden are returning home. And yet,
the path seems endless…
Right:
