Suresh went to visit an uncle of his who owned a coffee estate. To reach this estate he traveled by car on national high way 48. If we travel with Suresh we will soon learn about life on a plantation.
This drive from Chikmagalur to Bababudangiri in Karnataka is very beautiful. Baba Budan was a Muslim saint who was responsible or bringing the coffee seed to India. Today the slopes of the hill that are named after him as well as the surrounding hills are covered with million of coffee bushes.
The house that uncle his uncle lived in was a large imposing bungalow. But life there seemed a bit lonely after the noise and bustle of the city. His cousins too were away at their boarding schools for their education.
Paddy is grown in the district, so rice is available in plenty. The jungle abounds in firewood which is used for looking. So there is little need for cooking gas. The rooms have large, ornate fireplaces. During the monsoon and cold seasons, fires are lit in these to keep out the damp and cold. Vegetables are grown in the backyard. Milk, eggs and honey come from that region too. Shopping is done only once a week as the nearest town is miles away.
There are planters’ clubs as they are known. Though these clubs have Indian members now, they were once exclusively British and even today, the custom of the expatriate Britons survive. Talk of the club now centers mostly on whether there will be another frost in Brazil (the coffee plant cannot stand frost) or another earthquake in Colombia –both of which would give the price of Indian coffee a boost in the world market. Indian produces only two per cent the world’s coffee.
As social life and cultural activities are generally restricted, the planter’s wives are usually thrown to their own resources which means more time in the garden with the livestock and the day-to-day running of the house.
This is the way the planter and his family live, but there are the workers, the pickers and factory workers. They are provided with quarters on the far sides of the plantation. The manager is in change of the general administration of the plantation and it is his duty to see that the workers are provided with proper facilities, which includes winter and rain clothing. There is a crèche where the women leave their babies to be cared for while they go to work. Later they go to schools in the town, or attend the boarding schools if their parents can afford it. There is a health centre attend by a full time nurse on the plantation. The doctor calls everyday to attend on the sick workers. Serious cases of illness are taken by jeep to the hospital in city. A small co-operative society provides the daily needs of the workers and sells the produce of the plantation at cost price. They can go to town for their shopping on their weekly holiday.
The monsoon is an important factor in a plantation for without it the coffee crop would fail. Mid—June brings the monsoon rain drumming steadily on the roof. Plants rot and die while leeches get fat and juicy! Sometimes there are landslides. Clothes never dry, and if they do, they smell and look smoky. The people are confined to their houses during the season.
The coffee plant likes a warm, moist climate and well drained soil and so it grows best on hill-slopes about 900 meters above sea level. Coffee does not grow in north India on account of frost. It only grows in south India, Mainly in Karnataka though Tamil Nadu and Kerala also grows.