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Glimpses of India Part 3 Summary
Tea from Assam Summary of the Lesson
Pranjol and Rajvir are class-fellows in Delhi. The parents of Pranjol are living in Assam. Pranjol’s father is a manager of a tea-garden in upper Assam. So Pranjol has invited Rajvir to visit Assam during the summer vacation. Both are in a train journey.
When the train stopped, the vendor called out ‘Chai garam… garam… chai”. Pranjol ordered for two cups of tea. Other passengers were also sipping tea in the compartment. Rajvir told that over eighty crore cups of tea are drunk daily in the world. The train proceeded onwards.
When they were traveling, they came to view a magnificent sight of tea bushes. There were tea plants like the stretch of the sea. They saw the tea plants in orderly rows and a smoke was coming out from a tall chimney of an ugly building. Rajvir was excited to see the tea-garden. Pranjol told that it is a tea country. Rajvir told some legends about tea.
There is a story of the Chinese emperor. He always boiled water before drinking. One day while boiling the water, a few leaves of the twigs fell into the water. It gave a delicious flavour. It is said that they were the tea-leaves.
According to one legend there was an ancient Bodhidharma, an Buddhist ascetic. He felt asleep while meditating. He did not like it and cut off his eyelids and threw them on the ground. Ten tea plants grew out of the eye-lids. When their leaves were put in hot water, the drink removed sleep.
Rajvir told that tea was first drunk in China. ‘Chai’ and ‘chini’ are from China. It was in the sixteenth century that tea came to Europe. That time it was used as medicine. Then the train reached into Mariani junction. The boys collected their luggage.
Pranjol’s parents took them in a car towards Dhekiabari. It was Pranjol’s father’s tea-garden. There were tea bushes on both sides of the road. Women were plucking the tea leaves in bamboo baskets. May to July are the best months of tea yielding.