by Harish Bhat
Meanwhile, in India, I also made many friends. There is my loyal bearer, H. Jerome Pandian, who served me for over fifty years. He is the best human being I have ever known. Then there are the planters too, including that great, big man Scott Ramsey, with whom I spent many enjoyable evenings. We began growing old together, all of us, enjoying the good times. Occasionally, I would visit a monastery nearby to wash away my sins.
Edobetta plantation remained my first love. As I turned older, I wondered who would run Edobetta when I was gone. One thing was clear to me: Edobetta had always been a labour of love. So, it would have to be a person who loved coffee because Edobetta was all about deep love for coffee. With some further thinking, I decided it would have to be a couple, not just one person—because they could then live here forever with each other, looking after all the coffee with care and love. Not everyone can be a single monk like me, you know.
That is when I devised this game which you have played so well, my friends. Of course, with some help from my good friend Scott Ramsey, who had by then died of hard drinking and become a ghost in these parts, even when I was alive. Ah, the coffee ghost! He assured me that he would continue to haunt this area in a friendly way and help locate extreme lovers of coffee, who in his judgement could inherit my dear old Edobetta. And my little game, with all its clues, would of course test how much these people actually nurtured a love for Indian coffee.
I also thought to myself, with luck and some of the magic from my pink coffee, that these people could help me hand over those two keys to the Yamamotos. I decided to take a chance with this. So, my game plan took all this into account. I do not know if you managed to find the Yamamotos and hand over their keys, but if you did, please accept my heartfelt thanks. Shogun Yoshinobu will be very happy.
The rest is now before you, my friends. Look at the bundle of papers in your hands. These are the property papers to the Edobetta estate. You will find all the relevant documents and land deeds here. You can have this coffee plantation forever, if you wish to. This is my treasure, the only treasure that I owned.
There is only one condition though. You will have to live in Edobetta for the rest of your life and take care of this estate, like your own child. Think about this carefully. If you accept this condition, you can have my coffee plantation. But if you don’t accept this, then I would prefer that the plantation be donated to a local charity who will take good care of it. I have mentioned the name of this charity within these papers.
I hope you will accept my treasure. Many years ago, my life opened up to coffee. It has been the most delightful voyage, living with the coffee bean and enjoying its unrivalled pleasures every single day. Like me, you are great lovers of coffee. May this treasure open up a new coffee adventure for you too.
I remain, forever,
Asahi Saito.
*
Neha looked up from the monk’s letter and felt Rahul’s gaze on her. Their eyes locked together.
This was an unexpected gateway to an exciting, seductive, new life. Waking up with coffee, dancing with its blossoms, trekking in its trails, inhaling its aromas, luxuriating in its flavours, nurturing its fruits, travelling the world to discover new coffees, creating new blends for the world to savour, drowning in its infinite varieties and bringing to life the glories of Indian coffee. Imagine doing this every single day.
When she looked at Rahul again, she thought she could see a new light in his eyes. One factor was surely their love for coffee, which had grown during the past few weeks. And a life with each other, forever? She could never be sure, but it appeared to be a nice prospect.
But then, there was their life back in Mumbai—food blogging, advertising films, friends, shiny lights and the throbbing pace of one of India’s largest cities. Fame and fortune, in the city of dreams. Oh, and not to forget, Haroon and Starbucks. The familiar, secure life they knew and had settled into so well.
How extreme was their love for coffee? Neha knew they would have to answer this question soon. Even as she thought about this, Rahul turned to her and asked, ‘A tough choice, Neha. But I have a suggestion. Shall we consult RG?’
From his invisible perch, RG adjusted his spectacles, remembered the monk and smiled.
Rahul continued. ‘But I think that can wait for a while, Neha. For now, let’s just walk outside. It’s so beautiful here and the orange skies have lit up the evening.’
So, they locked that question deep in their minds and walked out of the verandah at Cottabetta Bungalow, hand in hand—Cottabetta, the cold mountain that looks out over an infinite carpet of coffee plantations in Coorg, home to magnificent coffees that warm up the world every single day.
In the distance, they heard the charr-charr of a woodpecker. They knew that it was speaking to them. They only wished that they could make out what it was saying.
*
Afterword
This story has its roots in my long-time love for coffee and a somewhat recent fascination for storytelling and magic realism. Rahul and Neha took shape in my coffee cup, as did the friendly ghost, RG. I loved the thought of including a nice, helpful coffee ghost in this adventure, though I do not know of any ghost that lives on coffee plantations. If you do go on your own coffee adventure, and perchance find a ghost, do let me know.
You could begin your coffee adventure at Cottabetta Bungalow, where Rahul and Neha stayed, or at one of the equally beautiful heritage bungalows tucked deep inside the lush-green coffee plantations of Coorg in south India. Here, you can savour the best that Indian coffee offers, beginning your day with a heavenly cup made from the local arabica and robusta beans that are grown and nurtured with love, by farmers who have made coffee their home.
I have enjoyed staying at Cottabetta Bungalow several times. Each time I have returned refreshed and rejuvenated thanks to the aromas of fresh coffee, the chirping of the great black woodpecker, treks through the coffee plants and the delicious Kodava curries. A good place to begin, if you are planning such an adventure for yourself, is Ama Plantation trails (amaplantationtrails.com), where you can discover many of these quaint bungalows and plan your own coffee plantation holiday.
Indian coffee is beautiful and unique. It is already popular in many parts of the world and deserves to be discovered by every coffee lover worldwide. My favourite Indian coffee is the monsoon Malabar coffee, one of the heroes of this story. It is musty with the smell of the rains, pungent with notes of pepper and spice; and its mellow aromas envelop your mind completely. I also love the one-by-two filter coffees of my home town, Bangalore. My favourite coffee spot in India is a small, cozy corner at the lovely Starbucks store in Horniman Circle, Mumbai, where this adventure evolves.
Since this book has been inspired by coffee, I would like some of its proceeds to go back to the coffee community. So, I have committed to donate my author’s royalties from the first edition of this book to the Coorg Foundation, which has been established by Tata Coffee, to promote and secure the upliftment, well-being and welfare of the local community of Coorg, the proud home of Indian coffee. One of the notable projects of this foundation is Swastha, which educates, trains and rehabilitates differently abled children from the region. Your purchase of this book will therefore also help a child in the coffee community. Thank you very much.
Each of us has a full lifetime to experience the magic of coffee. I hope you discover your own special coffees. I would be delighted to hear about them at [email protected].
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere thanks to the following people and institutions that made this book possible.
To Milee Ashwarya and the team at Penguin Random House India, for their belief in this book. Without that, the story would have been stillborn. Milee, thank you for your friendship and support.
To my editor, Saksham Garg, for brilliantly shaping this book. He not just edited the story but also enriched it by adding many superb and unexpected touches along the way. His insightful efforts helped
shape both plot and characters, and many of his editing interventions were as magical as the coffee itself.
To my copy editor, Aslesha Kadian, for her meticulous work on the text. Her excellent command over the English language and her instinctive feel for the right turn of phrase have gone towards tightening the story and making it so much more relaxed and enjoyable.
To Sreelakshmi Hariharan, Theresa Sequeira and Arlene D’Souza, my colleagues at the Tata Group, who have helped me in many different ways during the writing of this book.
To the Tata Group, where I have worked for more than three decades now, for encouraging my love of writing. This is my third book, and all three have been possible only because the Tata Group has provided me space and support to discover my passion for the written word, alongside my day job as a marketer and manager.
To my mother, Jayanthi, for her blessings. She has known for some time now that I have been writing a story about coffee. We have had occasional conversations about the progress of the tale, and I now look forward to gifting the book to her.
To my daughter, Gayatri, who has been a source of constant support in all my writing endeavours. If ever there is an epilogue to this story, she would be best placed to write it because her spontaneous, irreverent epilogue to my previous book (The Curious Marketer) was an instant hit with all readers.
And finally, to my wife, Veena. She is the love of my life and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for her strong support throughout the writing of this book. She is the first person to have read this story, every bit of it, and her critical observations and suggestions have helped shape many parts of it. She even took me away on writing holidays to the hills near Mumbai to ensure that I had the required time and space to think, develop and write this book. What would I do without you, Veena!
THE BEGINNING
Let the conversation begin…
Follow the Penguin Twitter.com@penguinbooks
Keep up-to-date with all our stories YouTube.com/penguinbooks
Pin ‘Penguin Books’ to your Pinterest
Like ‘Penguin Books’ on Facebook.com/penguinbooks
Find out more about the author and
discover more stories like this at Penguin.co.in
EBURY PRESS
USA | Canada | UK | Ireland | Australia
New Zealand | India | South Africa | China
Ebury Press is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
This collection published 2019
Copyright © Harish Bhat 2019
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Jacket images © Neelima P Aryan
This digital edition published in 2019.
e-ISBN: 978-9-353-05681-0
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.