Tea Book

AUTHOR: GP Baroowah

PHOTOGRAPHS & DESIGN: Dushyant Parasher

FOREWORD: Naba Kumar Das, IAS
(Chairman, Tea Board of India)

ISBN: 81 – 85921 – 02 – 04

IMPRINT: Red River

SIZE: 9” X 12”

BINDING: Hard Bound
with Full colour Dust Jacket

PAGES: 148, Full Colour

The tea industry has had a colourful and glamorous journey in India. Since the time the British colonialists discovered the potentials of the plant, it has not only provided good commercial investments for the country, but also a platform for all in its trade to flash their glamour, riches, culture and exoticism. If post-colonial India boasts of her grand Victorian monuments and the serpentine railways, she also, albeit in a more discreet manner, loves to boast this industry with its sprawling green estates, bungalows that put less privileged royals to shame and a legacy in its proud planters and jovial labourers.

This book is a lavish attempt to tell the story of Indian tea through the combination of fluid yet practical text and an extraordinary splurge of images. It is a work of non-fiction, written in the style of fiction. It is a combination of legends, fictional characters with the spirit of real planters and firm facts and figures. The visuals, carefully selected and designed, are meant to give the reader a pictorial definition of the text, which is a result of long research and the experiences of a person, who was in the industry during a very crucial period of its history. It creates a journey across time for the reader, a journey to take him along the colourful past, present and possible future of the Indian tea world.

Naba Kumar Das, Chairman of the Tea Board of India, writes, “This is a commendable book on the tea industry not only because of its content but also for the beauty and clarity of his (Baroowah’s) inimitable style of story telling, that will be enjoyed even by the common reader.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gautam Prasad Baroowah has a very vibrant career track. A Business Economist and writer, he was born in a town close to the tea gardens, in Nowgong, Assam on July 01, 1942. He studied Economics and Management in Assam, Hyderabad and Missouri, USA. After a long association with the tea industry giant, the Williamson Magor Group, he retired as their Group Corporate Vice President in October 2000. Baroowah then joined the Reserve Bank of India as Banking Ombudsman for the North-East India region and remained so until 2002. As recognition to his socio-political criticisms on conflict resolution and economic affairs, Baroowah was selected to head the Human Resource Committee of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry for several years. His association with the tea industry continues through his position as Director on the board of B&A Ltd, a reputed tea-producing group in Assam. He is also on the board of India Carbon Ltd.

GPB now spends most of his time by writing for columns in various newspapers and continues his passion for writing poems and travelogues. Till now, he has authored six books of poems and a number of travelogues. An award-winning writer in Assamese literature, he created a path breaking style in his area of writing. He lives in Kolkata, with his wife Utpala, a retired professor and PhD holder from Calcutta University. They have a son and a daughter, who are both independently settled.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Dushyant Parasher graduated from Delhi College of Art in 1972 and started his career as a graphic designer. He later joined advertising and worked as art director for some of the leading advertising agencies. He has now settled as a travel photographer, writer and book designer.

For the past three decades, Parasher has been contributing his photographic work regularly to various tourism promotion ventures, books and magazines at home and abroad. He also has two pictorial books to his credit: N.C. Hills—The enchanting land and the bird mystery of Jatinga and BHUTAN—A kingdom in the sky.

CONTENTS

1.
Discovering Tea

2.
Tea is Forever

3.
Flavour and Taste

4.
Indian Tea—partners of progress

5.
A Colourful Life and Culture

6.
A Health Drink

7.
Tea—The Future

8.
Chronology

Selected Bibliography

LBS Publications
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Branch Office 20, Ansari Road, New Delhi - 2, India

Tel: + 91-361-2543799 and + 91-361-2608566

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Email: info@lbsbooks.com

First Published in India in Red River by LBS Publications 2005

RED RIVER is an imprint of LBS Publications

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