Deundi Burra Bungalow 1950s.

coldwaterjohn, on November 20, 2007, said:

Deundi - Old Burra Bungalow The Burra Bungalow at Deundi was built in the 1890s, and contained the curious rarity of a crazy chine floor in its dining room...still there when Ian Anderson Brand McNie was Superintendent in the 1950s. "Of the buildings at Deundi I must not forget to tell of the floor which Aird had laid down in the drawing room of his new bungalow. It was of crazy china, and I have never seen another of this description in the tea districts. We all knew those floors in boarding houses and such like places in Calcutta, but that Sylhet should own one beat the band. I thought it wonderful, a flash of sophistication in a waste of teelahs, bheels, hullahs and nullas, coolie huts and bamboo jungle. But Aird told me the would never have tackled it if he knew beforehand what an undertaking it was going to be. He had odd coolies searching the middens of every bungalow in Sylhet, " but it took gharrie-loads to do a square yard," he said. To-day with his fine red patent stone floors the modern planter would stick his nose up at crazy china, but then he never had to live on a mud floor as we old-timers did." (Recollections of a Tea Planter, 1936, W.M. Fraser)

"Deundi was put out by the Alston interests as one result at least of the sale of Bhogotpore and Chundeecherra. The grants of land lay between Luskerpore and Lalchand, and one has only to see this fine property to realise what a magnificent stretch it comprises. In 1895 , when the jungle was being cut and only the area cleared and planted could be seen, it was difficult to appreciate its possibilities. [The first teas was planted in 1887/1888, and the factory was erected in 1890] The manager was J.E. Aird, who had been assistant with Walliker at Kuttal in Cachar. Jimmy Aird was an original sort of man, of a critical mentality. He could not be a party to loose talk on any subject, and though you could hardly say of him that he did not suffer fools gladly, he had the true slide-scale brain of the exacting engineer. Men who attempted to bluff an argument through without knowing what they were talking about made him caustic. Facts and figures were the breath of life to him, and his little book of tables and quantities which every planter must know and value is a plain key to his practical disposition. When Aird put his hands on the Deundi land, the first thing he did was to pull out the compasses. He found the centre spot and there he said he would have his factory. The layout out of the garden depended on that, and from it this budding Napoleon drew imaginary lines into the surrounding jungle; every one, as the spokes of a wheel, converging on the hub. Inside these radiations the garden was mapped out in given sections, the bushes to be planted accordingly five feet by five feet triangular. The main and sectional roads met teelahs, many of them steep, but had to go over them in a straight line. There was no dodging the jheel or going round the foot of a hill for Jimmy Aird. The lay-out in exact sections, with the exception of the radiating roads perhaps, was becoming recognised practice already in Assam and the Dooars, where the land was practically flat, but it was new to Sylhet. The land there is so cut up with jheels and teelahs that it was usual to plant according to the con¬figuration, making roads as and where a trace could be made that avoided water and consequent bridging, and with regard to the contour. The old Sylhet planter made fun of it all, but by the time Jimmy Aird got out a thousand acres the local men were rubbing their chins and admitting that there was something in it. I am anticipating if I attempt to estimate now Aird's capacity as a planter, since I shall have an opportunity of dealing with Sylhet again when I come to the year 1899, but his case is so unusual that I cannot resist dilating on his methods. Most men who can open out a garden successfully can manage it equally well. It is a question all the time of the man. In the case of Deundi I don't suppose any one could have put it out better, or more cheaply and it is in this last respect that I find Aird as manager of Deundi when it became an established concern, somewhat of an enigma. Was he mistakenly parsimonious in his management, was he right in his policy, or was he just ahead of the times? I find it difficult to answer that question. Thompson and Sanderson went for quality, and that policy paid. Aird went for quantity all the time. It was said that he was putting I don't know how many thousands of maunds through a single drier. And the teas reflected the cheap working and fetched as low prices as it was possible for a Sylhet garden to get. No one, however, except the proprietors, knew his costs, and it may well be that the profits per acre were greater than the quality gardens. Knowing Aird's ability I hesitate to think that he was working Deundi in any but the most remunerative fashion. I think the explanation is that by the time Deundi was producing a substantial crop Aird made up his mind that of the two methods of making a profit in Sylhet, quality or outturn, the latter was the more sure. Mass production was unthinkable in those days, but Jimmy Aird used it. With prices all over the shop. as we have experienced in recent years, mass production has certainly paid in Sylhet, and it may well have been that it paid Aird in those earlier days. Cheap working, low grade teas and poor prices. But what was the profit per acre? Whether Aird had an assistant or not in 1895 I cannot remember, but I think not. He probably bore the whole burden of the original opening out himself. He was never seen out of his garden in that year." (Recollections of a Tea Planter, 1936, W.M. Fraser)

coldwaterjohn, on February 10, 2008, said:

Copyrighted - contact photographer for permission to use