In 1979 the relocation from the High Ranges in South India to Upper Assam landed me in what, at that point of time, was a truly idyllic location. And heavenly it remained all the way though to the latter half of the mid ’80s when the United Liberation Front of Assam (an Assamese separatist movement) decided to harass us non Assamese out of Assam. Despite a couple of colleagues ending up in body bags, we hung in there all the way through to 1990 when I finally decided to throw in the towel.
In the meantime I had managed to land a job in Dubai with an international agricultural commodity trading company. The job, which involved some serious international travel, opened my eyes to opportunities so that three years down the road I took the plunge, partnered with an Iranian friend and set up my own business – The Tea & Coffee Company. In those days, with no clue about graphic designing, I requested an artist friend to knock tougher a mark for me. The free hand drawing ended up as :
Two years on, with the realization that I needed to focus my attention and energies, Coffee trading was thrown out of the window leaving me to concentrate on the only product I loved – TEA. So back to artist friend who took the easiest way out to present me with:
A lovely ‘badge’ with character which shouted out what we did for a living and which carried us through three relocations from Dubai to Colombo, Colombo to Cochin and finally to the Nilgiris in 2005.
By 2013, realising that I simply had to have some back-up support and with not much hope that this could work, I managed to wean Muskan away from a substance paying media job in Bombay for her to check out whether she would like to consider living a rural existence dedicated to tea. Most surprisingly the gamble paid off like a charm with Muskan taking to Tea like a duck to water, loving it from day one. Once settled in, her media mind came to the fore convincing her dad that the logo which had carried me through for well over a decade was archaic and ‘old as you are’. Could I argue? And so:
Which avatar I am hopeful will outlive me.
Life evolves!