Ok, a bit off the subject of the blog, but I just had to report on this. It may even be a fragrance that does not set off my hayfever. Unfortunately I have so much perfume already I cannot justify buying any more.
Reported in the Bangkok Post.
It's tea time
Published: 9/07/2011 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: Muse
It's such an irony that during the course of Jo Malone's 17 years in perfumery, the British perfume house has teased with the diverse cultures from all over the world _ the passionate rhythm of Latin music for Blue Agava & Cacao, the exotic beauty of Thai cuisine for Sweet Lime & Cedar or the Japanese Kohdo ceremony for the two colognes in Kohdo Wood collection _ before it finally goes back to the true tradition that the Brits are most associated with in the world: Tea drinking.
So, it's not surprising that the Jo Malone house finally visits the quintessential British tradition for its lastest summer fragrance collection: Tea Fragrance Blends. The five scents are Assam & Grapefruit, Earl Grey & Cucumber, Fresh Mint leaf, Sweet Lemon and Sweet Milk. Created by master perfumer Christine Nagel, the collection attempts to re-interpret classic rituals and capture the essence of such authentic practice into Jo Malone's olfactory signature.
In reality, unlike many previous Jo Malone's scents, the Tea Fragrance Blends take a more literal approach towards the scent that lends its name and inspiration to the cologne. You have Earl Grey & Cucumber that smells distinctly like Earl Grey, and it's by far the scent with strongest staying power in this collection, with the vanilla and musk in the base note ensuring the warm scent reminiscent of the tea.
Those preferring a brighter, more invigorating fragrance that is similar to morning tea could check out Assam & Grapefruit _ a scent that starts off pretty refreshing with the dashing shot of fruity odour, before fading down into the bold scent of Assam tea.
Fresh Mint Leaf completes the main all-day tea ceremony collection as the representation of evening blend, with a strong, spiky mint scent _ more mint compared to Jo Malone's jasmine-y, highly floral White Jasmine & Mint.
Sweet Lemon and Sweet Milk complete the collection the way sugar, lemon and milk complete our tea time. Whereas Sweet Milk is nothing but literal _ transpiring a scent that is milky and sweet, and is nearly impossible to be worn on its own. Sweet Lemon is a fruity twist that can both be layered on any of the scents in the collection or even worn on its own.
As a final thought, the Tea Fragrance Blends is one of Jo Malone's most straightforward interpretations of its source of inspiration, resulting in scents that are true to its name, rather than a new, distinctive creation _ hence the need to master the art of fragrance combination to achieve a more customised scent of your own, unless you just love tea so much and prefer to have the characteristically tea-like odour with you.
SAMILA WENIN
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Demand for better conditions in Assam
This was reported widely, but see the link below from The Telegraph, by Pullock Dutta
Tea garden asked to ‘pay up’
- Karbi outfit orders closure
PULLOCK DUTTA
A section of the Hatikhuli tea estate. Telegraph picture
Jorhat, July 12: Activities at Hatikhuli tea estate were disrupted today, with the garden employees refusing to work, following a threat from the Karbi People’s Liberation Tiger.
The tea estate, one of Asia’s largest organic tea plantations, belongs to Amalgamated Plantations Private Ltd, formerly Tata Tea.
The militant outfit has ordered the closure of the tea estate until the management comes to the negotiating table or pays up the money that the Karbi outfit has demanded.
The outfit had abducted a labour sardar, Bogai Karmakar, of the tea estate last Thursday to put pressure on the management to pay up.
However, Karmakar was released yesterday when the labour force, led by the Assam Tea Tribes Students Association, threatened to carry out attacks on Karbi villagers if he was not released.
The labourers also blocked National Highway 37 for several hours on Sunday.
A caller, who identified himself as Nilip Ingti, a leader of the Karbi outfit, told a few labourers of the tea estate last evening that Karmakar was released not because of the outfit’s fear of the garden labourers.
He said Karmakar was released because it did not want any confrontation with the tea labour community.
“We have nothing against the tea community and as such we are releasing Karmakar. But the labourers of the tea estate must ensure that they should cease work from tomorrow until the management pays up”.
The caller threatened capital punishment to anyone trying to oppose the diktat.
Anit Gaur, the assistant secretary of the Bokakhat unit of the tea tribe association, said the labourers have no option but to cease work, as they cannot risk their lives.
“We have informed the garden management to settle the issue with the militants and till then, the labourers have decided not to work,” said Gaur, who hails from Hatikhuli tea estate.
He said the labourers have also demanded the payment of daily wages from the management since it was not their fault that they could not work.
Golaghat deputy commissioner N.M. Hussain said he has assured the labourers of security and there should be no fear from the militants.
“We have already posted a police picket in the tea estate,” he said.
The deputy commissioner, however, said it would not be an easy task to provide security to the garden labourers all the time.
Located along the Golaghat-Karbi Anglong border near Kaziranga National Park, a large portion of the garden falls in Karbi Anglong district.
He added that there was no information about the militants demanding money from the garden management.
Repeated attempts to contact the garden officials failed.
Sources said the labourers would be holding a meeting with the management for a solution to the problem.
The Karbi outfit has gone on an extortion spree, targeting tea gardens in the Nagaon-Karbi Anglong border areas to raise funds to purchase arms.
This came to light during a law and order review meeting of Karbi Anglong and Golaghat district police.
“We have instructed all tea garden officers not to move outside the gardens at odd hours. All possible measures to ensure security have been taken,” a police official said.
The outfit’s general secretary, Ingti, told reporters that these gardens would not be allowed to continue their business.
The outfit has also instructed the Karbi and other indigenous workers serving in the gardens to leave work immediately.
The Karbi Anglong police source said the outfit’s threat is nothing but a part of its planned extortion drive.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SARAT SARMA IN NAGAON
Tea garden asked to ‘pay up’
- Karbi outfit orders closure
PULLOCK DUTTA
A section of the Hatikhuli tea estate. Telegraph picture
Jorhat, July 12: Activities at Hatikhuli tea estate were disrupted today, with the garden employees refusing to work, following a threat from the Karbi People’s Liberation Tiger.
The tea estate, one of Asia’s largest organic tea plantations, belongs to Amalgamated Plantations Private Ltd, formerly Tata Tea.
The militant outfit has ordered the closure of the tea estate until the management comes to the negotiating table or pays up the money that the Karbi outfit has demanded.
The outfit had abducted a labour sardar, Bogai Karmakar, of the tea estate last Thursday to put pressure on the management to pay up.
However, Karmakar was released yesterday when the labour force, led by the Assam Tea Tribes Students Association, threatened to carry out attacks on Karbi villagers if he was not released.
The labourers also blocked National Highway 37 for several hours on Sunday.
A caller, who identified himself as Nilip Ingti, a leader of the Karbi outfit, told a few labourers of the tea estate last evening that Karmakar was released not because of the outfit’s fear of the garden labourers.
He said Karmakar was released because it did not want any confrontation with the tea labour community.
“We have nothing against the tea community and as such we are releasing Karmakar. But the labourers of the tea estate must ensure that they should cease work from tomorrow until the management pays up”.
The caller threatened capital punishment to anyone trying to oppose the diktat.
Anit Gaur, the assistant secretary of the Bokakhat unit of the tea tribe association, said the labourers have no option but to cease work, as they cannot risk their lives.
“We have informed the garden management to settle the issue with the militants and till then, the labourers have decided not to work,” said Gaur, who hails from Hatikhuli tea estate.
He said the labourers have also demanded the payment of daily wages from the management since it was not their fault that they could not work.
Golaghat deputy commissioner N.M. Hussain said he has assured the labourers of security and there should be no fear from the militants.
“We have already posted a police picket in the tea estate,” he said.
The deputy commissioner, however, said it would not be an easy task to provide security to the garden labourers all the time.
Located along the Golaghat-Karbi Anglong border near Kaziranga National Park, a large portion of the garden falls in Karbi Anglong district.
He added that there was no information about the militants demanding money from the garden management.
Repeated attempts to contact the garden officials failed.
Sources said the labourers would be holding a meeting with the management for a solution to the problem.
The Karbi outfit has gone on an extortion spree, targeting tea gardens in the Nagaon-Karbi Anglong border areas to raise funds to purchase arms.
This came to light during a law and order review meeting of Karbi Anglong and Golaghat district police.
“We have instructed all tea garden officers not to move outside the gardens at odd hours. All possible measures to ensure security have been taken,” a police official said.
The outfit’s general secretary, Ingti, told reporters that these gardens would not be allowed to continue their business.
The outfit has also instructed the Karbi and other indigenous workers serving in the gardens to leave work immediately.
The Karbi Anglong police source said the outfit’s threat is nothing but a part of its planned extortion drive.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SARAT SARMA IN NAGAON
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Lodges created to increase tourism
This by a staff reporter from The Telegraph
Tea bungalow-lodges beckon tourists
A STAFF REPORTER
Jorhat, June 22: The Assam government-owned Assam Tea Corporation Limited, in a bid to increase its revenue, will convert at least eight bungalows in four tea estates into tourist lodges.
The ATCL has 15 gardens and most of these are in Upper Assam.
Disclosing this to The Telegraph, industry minister Pradyut Bordoloi said the ATCL has to diversify its business and converting these British-era bungalows into tourists lodges has the scope to earn more revenue for the company.
The eight bungalows have been identified at Cinnamara, Soycotta and Murmuria and Rungamatty tea estates. While the bungalow at Rungamatty is almost ready with renovation completed, work on the other seven bungalows will be carried out soon.
Bordoloi had visited the Rungamatty tea estate yesterday to oversee the ongoing renovation on the bungalow.
Although the ATCL had planned to take into tea tourism venture by converting tea gardens into resorts way back in 2005, things did not work out because of paucity of funds. In fact, a bungalow in Cinnamara tea estate, the first tea estate to have been owned by an Assamese, Maniram Dewan, was prepared for tourists but work stopped midway.
“The ATCL is limping back to its good old days and in another few years we expect the company to make profit again,” Bordoloi said.
He said several initiatives like re-plantation of tea bushes and modernisation of factories have been done in recent times. A senior ATCL official said most of these bungalows were lying unused for several years now and few of them were almost in ruins.
“The maintenance cost of these bungalows is huge and they remained unused after being vacated by the tea executives,” the official said.
He said tour operators would be contacted as soon as these bungalows were ready for tourists.
The official said there were plans to convert all the 15 tea estates of the company into resorts and the colonial-style bungalows into star-category resorts. “Many tourists from the different parts of the country and abroad have a fascination for tea gardens and we want to cash in on this. Spending few nights amid lush green tea estates will no doubt be a great experience for tourists.”
The official said the tourists would also get an opportunity to have a first-hand experience of the tea-making process. He said the bungalows would not only serve as tourist resorts but also to company executives and businessmen on official visits.
“With several big companies setting up branches in small towns like Jorhat, Nagaon and Golaghat, business executives keep travelling to these places. These bungalows will provide them an ideal location to spend a night far away from the hustle and bustle of the urban setting,” the ATCL official said.
Tea bungalow-lodges beckon tourists
A STAFF REPORTER
Jorhat, June 22: The Assam government-owned Assam Tea Corporation Limited, in a bid to increase its revenue, will convert at least eight bungalows in four tea estates into tourist lodges.
The ATCL has 15 gardens and most of these are in Upper Assam.
Disclosing this to The Telegraph, industry minister Pradyut Bordoloi said the ATCL has to diversify its business and converting these British-era bungalows into tourists lodges has the scope to earn more revenue for the company.
The eight bungalows have been identified at Cinnamara, Soycotta and Murmuria and Rungamatty tea estates. While the bungalow at Rungamatty is almost ready with renovation completed, work on the other seven bungalows will be carried out soon.
Bordoloi had visited the Rungamatty tea estate yesterday to oversee the ongoing renovation on the bungalow.
Although the ATCL had planned to take into tea tourism venture by converting tea gardens into resorts way back in 2005, things did not work out because of paucity of funds. In fact, a bungalow in Cinnamara tea estate, the first tea estate to have been owned by an Assamese, Maniram Dewan, was prepared for tourists but work stopped midway.
“The ATCL is limping back to its good old days and in another few years we expect the company to make profit again,” Bordoloi said.
He said several initiatives like re-plantation of tea bushes and modernisation of factories have been done in recent times. A senior ATCL official said most of these bungalows were lying unused for several years now and few of them were almost in ruins.
“The maintenance cost of these bungalows is huge and they remained unused after being vacated by the tea executives,” the official said.
He said tour operators would be contacted as soon as these bungalows were ready for tourists.
The official said there were plans to convert all the 15 tea estates of the company into resorts and the colonial-style bungalows into star-category resorts. “Many tourists from the different parts of the country and abroad have a fascination for tea gardens and we want to cash in on this. Spending few nights amid lush green tea estates will no doubt be a great experience for tourists.”
The official said the tourists would also get an opportunity to have a first-hand experience of the tea-making process. He said the bungalows would not only serve as tourist resorts but also to company executives and businessmen on official visits.
“With several big companies setting up branches in small towns like Jorhat, Nagaon and Golaghat, business executives keep travelling to these places. These bungalows will provide them an ideal location to spend a night far away from the hustle and bustle of the urban setting,” the ATCL official said.
Four murdered in Assam
It seems the family were accused of witchcraft so the "witch hunters" could rape the mother and daughter.
See the full story in Hindustan Times, by Rahul Karmaker
A mother and a daughter were conveniently labeled witches in order to be raped and killed on Tuesday. The arrested ‘witch-hunters’ confessed this on Thursday. The police in north-central Assam’s Sonitpur district had on Tuesday found four bodies in a ditch in Monabarie Tea Estate, Asia’s
largest. The bodies – of Binanda Gaur, 46, his wife Karishma Gaur, 36, daughter Naina, 15, and a neighbour Manglu Mour, 14 – bore multiple injury marks and the faces were burnt by acid.
The police suspected it to be a case of witch-hunting, fairly prevalent across tea plantations. But the arrest of six of the seven ‘witch-hunters’ Thursday morning revealed there was a system to the madness.
“We recovered some instruments used in the killing, but it was not a case of witch-hunting,” said Sonitpur district police chief AP Tiwari.
Tiku Orang, one of those arrested, admitted they were instigated by one Surat Modi to accuse Binanda Gaur and his family members of practicing witchcraft that caused sickness among plantation workers. But the real motive was the lust for Binanda’s wife and daughter.
The mother and daughter were dragged out to the ditch at midnight, raped and killed. Gaur and teenager Mour had been killed earlier.
Black magic, witchcraft and superstitious beliefs have been part of tribal customs in Assam and other northeastern states. According to a conservative estimate, some 150 people have been killed in the past five years for allegedly practicing witchcraft in Assam.
In a bid to check this practice, the Assam police had launched Project Prahari entailing community policing and awareness drives. Officials involved with the project said women often fall victims of witch-hunt owing to property disputes. "Sexual assault appears to be a new phenomenon," said a senior police officer.
See the full story in Hindustan Times, by Rahul Karmaker
A mother and a daughter were conveniently labeled witches in order to be raped and killed on Tuesday. The arrested ‘witch-hunters’ confessed this on Thursday. The police in north-central Assam’s Sonitpur district had on Tuesday found four bodies in a ditch in Monabarie Tea Estate, Asia’s
largest. The bodies – of Binanda Gaur, 46, his wife Karishma Gaur, 36, daughter Naina, 15, and a neighbour Manglu Mour, 14 – bore multiple injury marks and the faces were burnt by acid.
The police suspected it to be a case of witch-hunting, fairly prevalent across tea plantations. But the arrest of six of the seven ‘witch-hunters’ Thursday morning revealed there was a system to the madness.
“We recovered some instruments used in the killing, but it was not a case of witch-hunting,” said Sonitpur district police chief AP Tiwari.
Tiku Orang, one of those arrested, admitted they were instigated by one Surat Modi to accuse Binanda Gaur and his family members of practicing witchcraft that caused sickness among plantation workers. But the real motive was the lust for Binanda’s wife and daughter.
The mother and daughter were dragged out to the ditch at midnight, raped and killed. Gaur and teenager Mour had been killed earlier.
Black magic, witchcraft and superstitious beliefs have been part of tribal customs in Assam and other northeastern states. According to a conservative estimate, some 150 people have been killed in the past five years for allegedly practicing witchcraft in Assam.
In a bid to check this practice, the Assam police had launched Project Prahari entailing community policing and awareness drives. Officials involved with the project said women often fall victims of witch-hunt owing to property disputes. "Sexual assault appears to be a new phenomenon," said a senior police officer.
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