The little Darjeeling train is special because it likes to cross the road a number of times. It travels slowly, and so inevitably creates traffic jams, which the tourists love because it gives them time to take pictures.
I like the fact that this little train of Darjeeling has the same familiarity with my blog as it has with the road, and crosses it from time to time, whenever it takes its fancy. It’s as if we must give way to it, and wait patiently while it passes.
Tea is a serious matter, it requires much hard work and science to grow it, harvest its leaves, wither them, heat them, roll them, oxidise them, dry them, sort them and more. But tea is not just about that. It is also a simple drink, an everyday act, an affordable pleasure. Here, in Kolkata, this street seller, just opposite the New Market, is enjoying his chai tea. He’s drinking it from a little throwaway earthenware cup.
These days, when everything has to be fast, modernisation has also affected the little Darjeeling train. For one of the daily services, the steam train lets out a big sigh and takes a break to make way for a diesel engine, as we can see here. So this is a bit of progress to be avoided, unless the journey itself is not your aim and all that matters is to get there quickly.
I like taking things slowly. I appreciate anything that takes its time. So you won’t be surprised to hear that my favourite train is one of the slowest in the world, perhaps the last steam train in operation in India. It is nicknamed the Toy Train and it runs between Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, a distance of 80 km which takes it… 8 hours! It needs all its puff to climb 2,088 metres.
The seed of a tea plant, the seed of a blog. The start of a blog is like a birth. It is like sowing a small seed, giving it time to germinate, then watching it emerge and grow until finally it becomes a mature plant. Something that links you to others by sharing a part of life, of love. So to begin my blog, I have chosen a photo of a seed. The seed of a tea plant, of course. I can’t remember exactly where I took this photo, but it doesn’t really matter. The fruit of the tea plant seen here is a type of nut. Inside are up to six seeds. Before choosing which seeds to plant, the grower does something interesting: he collects lots of seeds, then soaks them all in water for 24 hours. When he returns, he throws away all the seeds floating on the water’s surface, and keeps the ones that have sunk to the bottom. He knows that only those seeds will produce good tea plants.
