Biki and I go went out to Ka’ Gokulmani’s jobsite at Senapati. The tea-estate is called Hembung. Very impressive set-up that belongs to some former minister of agriculture. Looks like he is getting some major money from grantmakers all over. Not sure how serious he is about tea or whether this is more a pretty front for a grant cash cow.

The tea garden wasn’t as pretty as the flower garden. Not looked after terribly well, to my untrained eye. Supposed to stop slash and burn and turn the hapless peasants onto a cash crop etc etc.

Pity it is Assam tea when all the guy could have done was get seeds locally for a unique local product. And some local pride dammit!

Anyway, Ka’Gokulmani will get me some tea from Tamenglong and let’s see what I can do when I get back to NYC. I will send some to Les. He liked the Tamenglong tea I sent him in 2000. Getting some stick insects in return seemed fair trade. Poor Sticky and Jessica. Dead, dead, dead. Hope they are Canadian bugs and not tropical for I put them through some Christian rites. Though Dee and I got Sticky to the Blessing of the Animals at St John’s. The bishop goes, Bless you, Sticky, and all who love you. I think he was the only bug officially blessed, not counting the riff-raff who stowed away on some animal there, or some humans too for that matter from the looks of some of them. Hee. Jessica lies in the Biblical Garden, strewn there along with BVD’s ashes. I hope Barbara and Jessica are playing harp together just fine up there.

But I digress. Tea. Yum.