Sinclair’s Chalsa resort…

Vikas Kothari took me yesterday to his 15 crore property 50 kilometers away on a 20 acres plot in a very lush green patch overlooking Dooar’s tea gardens.  

Perfect place for marriage.

ISRO classes on tea watch…

Siliguri, Aug. 21: Tea planters were today briefed on the various applications of the Geographical Information System (GIS), a project taken up by the Tea Board in association with the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Experts from Isro, the department of space of the central government and the Tea Board spoke at the first national-level workshop held here today.

“The focus was on the elaborate and varied use of the satellite mapping to be done through remote sensing. The Tea Board will have information about the total area under cultivation, quality and age of the bushes and details of existing natural resources. Once the project is implemented, there will be regular updates on climatic conditions, pest attacks and likewise,” said Amal Roychoudhury, the deputy director of the Tea Board in Siliguri.

“The experts asked planters and other stakeholders to provide more information on tea estates to make the satellite mapping comprehensive,” said Roychoudhury.

Tea Board officials said a host of other tasks could also be executed with the help of the data obtained through the GIS. The tasks include the marking of land for cultivation in the gardens, measurement of area needed for shade trees, determination of sand suitability for tea and alternative crops, management of water resources, the monitoring of uprooting and re-plantation areas and web-enabled MIS (management information system).

“Once the mapping is complete, advance warning on climate, pest attack and quality of tealeaves can be given,” said Bijoygopal Chakraborty, the convener of the United Forum of Small Tea Growers’ Associations, an apex body of small growers in the region.

“These would definitely help us in many ways. Experts present at the meeting also made it clear that the information would be updated on a regular basis,” he added.

The project, which would cost around Rs 6 crore, was taken up by the Union ministry of commerce and industries in the 11th Five-Year Plan.

Thor, the Norse god of thunder…

Mayuri & Torgeir Sundgot got a baby boy yesterday the 20th August 2009, Thursday at three am and named him Thor. Has Father Jellichi reincarnated in our family?  

Thor (Old Norse: Þōrr, Þunarr; Old English: Þunor, Þūr; Old Saxon: Þunær;^[1] Frisian: Tonger, Old Dutch: Donar; Old High German: Donar; Proto-Germanic: *Thunaraz) is the red-haired and bearded^[2][3] god of thunder in Germanic mythology and Germanic paganism, and its subsets: Norse paganism, Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic paganism.

Most surviving stories relating to Germanic mythology either mention Thor or center on Thor’s exploits. Thor was a much revered god of the ancient Germanic peoples from at least the earliest surviving written accounts of the indigenous Germanic tribes to over a thousand years later in the late Viking Age.

http://cid-08ec579c9c3838f1.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Tor%2020.08.2009?uc=1&isFromRichUpload=1

Ak-bota looks smart…

When the Kazak packs came today they looked so smart – both wooden plywood caddies or the cardboard boxes. Hope consumers will like them too.

Now it is time to turn to Mongolia…

During my last trip to Kunming, I bought many movies and the best I got was “Mongol” by an Russian Director. It impressed me and the life of Changes Khan forced me to get a book called “The secret history of Mongols” as translated and edited by Francis Woodman Cleaves, which is infact the history of Changes Khan from the annals of Mongolia.

Dan Robertson or Luo Lao, as I prefer to call him, was more fortunate one then me to take his World Tea Tour this year there and gave me this extraordinary picture here. I must join him next time in 2010 to Japan & Korea.  

Father Jellichi finally laid to rest…

The man, who was everything to me, is no more now – only his memories remains.

Father Jellichi, we shall miss you…

Xi Sang for Father Luigi Jellichi…

mother you know in china, people who passed away at his age, normally if over ninty, it called xi sang, that means he has spent a complete life with big family-including people like u, and live natually for so many years till pass away. xi, means not sad, means it is a complet end without pity, sang, means furnaral,

he has spent a natural life till pass away, no pity and devote what he has to his family to his friend..

-Tana, my daughter from China

Father passed away at 8.20pm yesternight and will be cremated on 15th August 2009 in Selisian College at Sonada in Darjeeling.

Father Lurgi Jellichi…

is terminally ill now in Gangaram Missionary Hospital. He is 94 now. On 17th August there is to be his 60th anniversary of Priesthood in India, his immediate family member are arriving from Italy on this friday. Here he is seen with my grand daughter Indira during Dolly’s marriage in February 2008.

We all pray for him and his health…

Buddham Saranam Gacchame…

This laughing Buddha statue in Ma Gu Shan in Jiangxi on 23rd April 2009 inculcated something in me, which came to my table few months after from a buddhist monestry in Bhutan, where Vivek has gone on a byking trip in June 2009.

Serendipity…

Wuyishan Ridge…

If you look at the border between Fujian & Jiangxi, the main length runs along the crest of Wuyishan mountains where bamboo grows unabated alongwith tea and soil is normally red.

Singalila ranges where lower fingers of Sandakphu ridges forms the hills of Darjeeling, where the exotic teas are grown are virtally the same, where the boundaries of Nepal, India, Sikkim & Bhutan meet.

Quite a similarity in the soils too.