Traveling to Tea Country

  Shona Patel, author of Teatime for the Firefly, grew up on a tea plantation and recreated her richly green home turf, Assam, India, as the backdrop of a tender love story. For tea-drinkers like me who relish a soothing  cuppa to start--or break away from--a busy day, this book was like making a pilgrimage to tea Eden, all from the comfort of home. Patel dropped me inside the 1940s world of a bustling tea plantation and never skimped on the details: wineglass-shaped tea bushes growing in "waves and waves of undulated green," ebony-skinned tea pickers with colorful saris and thick pewter bangles, "pale lilac orchids sprouting from mossy armpits in branches."
   Halfway through I was so enthralled I went online to investigate tea plantation vacations. And there's a nice choice available, just for the record.
  Since finishing the book I'll  appreciate each sip a bit more than I did before. Tea may have the reputation as a soothing drink that invites quiet contemplation, but life among the Camellia assimica plants was rugged business back then. Encounters with man-eating leopards, venomous insects, rogue elephants, rhinos, even ghosts, were common. Is such a place the right place to cultivate love? That's the question that lingers as you move through the story.
   Maybe the tea plantation is the perfect place for Layla and Manik Deb. Earlier she was convinced she'd be a spinster because she was born beneath an unlucky star. Though highly educated, Layla believed her destiny was predetermined by her Hindu horoscope. So it would be impossible to move forward with former Rhodes scholar Manik, the handsome friend of her grandfather who is already engaged.
   Unbeknownst to Layla, Manik formulates a plan to escape the marriage and create a new life--not as a civil servant, but an assistant manager on a remote tea plantation. How they finally marry and flourish amidst the steamy jungles in a company bungalow kept me glued to each page. This, after all, is a love story, and the romantic in me enjoyed the flowering relationship in a world full of beauty and adversity. In addition to the natural world's obstacles, there was plenty to fear among the wives of the British managers employed by the tea company. They were an aloof, petty lot and rarely made Layla feel like part of the crowd. But they were minor threats compared to the upheaval underway in India at that time. As British colonial life ebbed, clashes between Hindus and Muslims became more prevalent and increasingly violent. Not even the tea plantation's distant location could insulate them from the discord, and both Layla and Manik's lives were interrupted--and threatened--during the turmoil.
  The warm, exotic feel of the book evaporates as Patel recreates this difficult period in India's history, but since her characters can't escape it, neither can we. How they responded during the crisis and its aftermath is a testament to her characters' deep connection to their souls and each other. It warmed me, just like a good cup of tea.
The Push From the Book: I'll visit those tea vacation websites again. It's a dreamy thought, to visit that part of the world so faraway and different from my own, but Patel planted a tiny seed inside me. And it's starting to sprout. Visit India? You never know.