The Tea plantations integrate well with nature's order. The tea plantations that Anna and I recently visited gave us an introduction to the biological order preserved in the mountains. The forest cover and tea plantations co-exist. The planting and replanting of the tea saplings are an ongoing activity in the estates! The forest cover protects the climate to be favourable for tea plants to grow. The pruning of tea plants and replanting too take place in a planned manner seasonably.
What fascinated us was the habits and practices of the plantation workers. They know the tea plants and nurture them by pruning, so that there are multiple branches, which make a tea plant to grow in all directions to give it a rounded look. When pruning has been done multiple times, over about ten to fifteen years, replanting might be necessary. Sometimes replanting can be prolonged even up to twenty five years. It is the tea taster in the tea factory who indicates if the aroma and taste of tea have changed, upon which a decision is taken about pruning or replanting.
The grading of tea leaves after processing is another important step in the marketing of the products. Each brand of tea is a product of its natural flavour and taste preserved by an appropriate processing.
The details of how green leaves get transformed into what we get to buy as tea leaves from the shop involve a chain of planned activities. They transform leaves to yield tea!
In the book, Ageless Soul, Thomas More suggests that growing up and ageing are two different experiences in life. The growing up is a chronological event whereas aging is a formative process. In the section on The joy of aging in page 8, Thomas More had this to say: " When you open yourself to a transformative experience, whether it seems positive or negative, your soul blossoms. It is born in you again and again. Soul refers to our mysterious depth and substance, what remains after medicine and psychology have analysed and explained us. It is a profound sense of self, far beyond what they call ego, and it helps us to connect with others. The soul offers a strong sense of identity and individuality, but at the same time it includes a felt awareness of being part of humanity. In some mysterious way, we and others share an experience of what it is to be human and we do this so deeply that, according to many traditional accounts, we share one soul"
Such a soulful experience was referred to by Ralph Waldo Emerson as an 'ascension of state, such as can be represented by metamorphosis'.
The green leaves become tea leaves through the processing from the plucking stage to ready to use tea leaves to make tea! The tea plants too go through a series of priming and pruning to yield leaves that can be used to become tea leaves.
This is a metaphor of 'human becoming' ! If leaders of some countries still use war to hurt, harm and subdue people, this human becoming process to stay connected with the rest of humanity has got halted somewhere. The leaders of such nations have grown older but not aged to live soulfully!
Thomas More describes aging in page 5 of the above book: 'When I use the word aging, I mean becoming more of a person and more over time. I keep an image in my mind of cheese and wine. Some get better with simple passage of time. We set them aside to rest until they are ready. Time improves them, an inner and invisible alchemy transforms them and gives them taste and flavour. Human being age in. asimialt way. If you let life shape you, then as time goes by you will become richer, more interesting person... In that sense, your very purpose in life is to age, to become what you are, essentially, to unfold and let your inborn nature to be revealed. You let your ageless self, your soul, peek out from behind the more anxious, active self, trying hard to be successful through planning and hard work".
Jesus of Nazareth told a parable which illustrated this ageing process of human becoming succinctly! That was the parable of the Good Samaritan. The first two who noticed the wounded person passed by to occupy themselves in their work that fulfilled their ego. A third person, a Samaritan stopped to attend to the wounded person and took him to an inn, paid for his care and offered to return to attend to him. The Good Samaritan lived soulfully because of which he shared his caring instinct with a wounded person!
That is the aging process! To be able to feel the wounds of others and be moved to care!
This is the aging process of human becoming !
The green leaves become tea leaves because of the processing they go through. The experiences in our chronological years prepare us to age to become a neighbour to others!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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