Top: A sudden splash of rain has just washed the hills and the tea leaves. The ground is wet and more insect bites than usual. A female tea worker in the Kapai Garden of Lashkarpur Tea Estate wears an irritated look as she continues to pick leaves, while watching her step on the sloping slippery wet ground.

Bottom: With the falling prices of tea in the international market, the Ratna Tea Estate has been shut for nearly 9 months now. No work, no money. The families had tried to live off the forestation. But even that is scarce. This family is now helpless. These are the last remaining rice grains they had bought with their savings.

 

Top: Men don’t pick leaves in the gardens. They partake in the rest of the activities of tea processing : they cut trees from the forestation on the outskirts of the garden for homebuilding or firewood. Here; men are seen sawing a large tree trunk while the heat and humidity of the naked afternoon sun blazes across the sky.

Bottom: As the dying rays of a long day sun plays hide and seek amidst the green dense forestation, a constant stream of tired women slowly make their way home on a narrow path, with their basket — finally empty — resting on their heads, and the sari drawing a long veil.

Top: When I asked why the wall of this room was not fixed yet, Fulmoni of Ratna Tea Estate vents her frustration: ‘The husband died without any treatment. There was no work. Didn’t have any money to keep him alive. What house?’ She sits on the edge of her room — the thatched walls had been broken in a recent storm.

Bottom :The tea picking season is still a few months away. Time to work on the homestead. Bandhan; a tea worker is mixing mud on the floor of his under-construction hut. He is making a new home. He is hopeful it will be strong and long lasting.