Studying as an undergraduate at the University of London in the late 1960's was to be in the midst of a silent but beautiful revolution. London is the centre of the world, where people from all over the world congregate. In the late 1960's it was the time of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, the incredible Jimi Hendrix and of course the glorious international movement Flower Power and the Hippies. It was the first time in the history of mankind that young people had money jangling in their pocket and of course their accompanying power. This power ushered in Flower Power, where the youth rejected the politics of hate and unleashed the power of love.

The green or organic movement was a part and parcel of this silent revolution, the ethos being to conquer all by the power of love and not dominate by the power of the gun. I was a product of this silent but powerful revolution that enabled young people to throw archaic, conventional values out of the window and release a synergy that united young people globally to express themselves to be really free.

Caught up in the eye of this wonderful initiative, there was no way I was returning to the family owned tea estate at Darjeeling. However man proposes and god disposes.

I returned home for a holiday, and my father promptly gifted me a racehorse and a gun, asking me to have a holiday riding and hunting in the woods of Makaibari. On the third day of my idyllic vacation, I fell off my horse, when a wild boar crossed my path, causing my steed to shy and send me headlong. That minor fall proved to be a major turning point in my life.

In a split second, as I sailed over my horse's head, I had a sensation of rushing through a great tunnel, a brilliant light beckoning, and the trees chanting melancholically "Save us, save us". A moment later I hit the ground, and realized it was not a dream. The trees had gifted me a mantra - it was such a powerful experience that I had to obey it unconditionally - it was a calling.

I had no idea what happened to me, I was determined to logically discover the phenomena; I had been subjected to, but was too embarrassed to speak about it to anyone - as I had no desire to be certified insane. That night at supper, to the delight of my parents I informed them that I would spend the rest of my life at Makaibari.

My family had been growing teas at Darjeeling for over a century, since the first plant was set in 1848, and my great grandfather, was the first man ever to set up a tea factory at Makaibari in 1859. Prior to that, although the teas from china were over 1300 years old, and the tea traditions at Japan over 500 years, all of it were handmade. James Watt invented the steam engine in 1854 and my great grandfather set up the first tea factory in 1859. I reckon that makes me a functioning heritage.

The family had excellent connections and access to the best tea tasters, researchers, archives, buyers, brokers in fact most folk who were connected to the colonial tea world that the British had established. I met the most influential and knowledgeable experts connected to tea over the course of the next few years, whilst intently studying the conditions of the all the 87 tea gardens of Darjeeling.

To my horror I discovered quickly, that most planters were insensitive to their environment and grew tea with only one aim -TO MAXIMISE THE FLAVOUR IN THE BALANCE SHEET. This has resulted in widespread mayhem- entire sections of teas had fallen down, landslides were rampant. The tea was grown mono-culturally.

Darjeeling has the world' most spectacular and steepest mountains arguably in the world. We have high rainfall between June and September, and all our teas are grown in very steep slopes. This results in erosion of the topsoil. It is a crime to use weedicide, as it aids and abets the erosion, which would ultimately result in crop failure.

All planters were merrily applying large doses of fertilizers, acaroids, pesticides, weedicide et al., without blinking an eyelid to pause at the ramifications that this was leading to. IT WAS A BLIND DATE WITH SHORT TERM GAINS AND LONG TERM DISASTER.

The Mantra I had received from the fall was now crystal clear - I had to plant trees of every shape, size and color- amongst the tea, on any wasteland or any empty space that I could locate.

My father had cleared 20 hectares for new planting, and I immediately revolted. I informed him that if this was not stopped forthright I would leave him and go away from Makaibari. It was a choice for him to have me or new tea plantations. I won, and I immediately replanted the area with indigenous varieties of tree saplings. Today Makaibari is the only tea plantation in the world which has 2 heactares of primary forests for 1 hectare of tea.

Furthermore, the tea is grown permaculturally.