Sri Rama drove us around his home state. I will always be grateful for his service. He made a killing on the deal and so did we: a real win-win let’s say. Sri Rama didn’t come with us to the highest tea plantation in Kerala however. That was another off-the-beaten-track things we chanced upon. Having spent a day wandering around one of Tata’s tea estates meeting people, we somehow found out about this mountain top tea factory. Above the clouds yet among the emerald carpet of tea terraces, on the border with Tamil Nadu and perched on a ridge, the team kept the well preserved factory ticking over, bailing bags of tea in the rarified air. Back in Mysore, the keeper of books held my camera’s gaze. He had more important work to do than taking snaps of locals, no doubt. And life carried on.
