was totally devoid of any kindness and respect which should have been their due. It was all most puzzling, very sad and extraordinary and I have no explanation at all for it, but her attitude and bad psyche was sadly to dominate and contort her whole future life which she made for herself in New Zealand.
I took Father over for his visit and took photos holding the babes. He spent ages checking their fingers in case they were damaged like I had done in my crayfishing accident and had in some way inherited the defect, and he wanted to be sure that in his own mind that they were all working well and gripping normally! Two days later he was off to Colombo and the boat and then Jill & Candy came home to settle into our new family routine.
Once she was home all the neighbours came to call and see the twins. Susan Fincher who was such a good friend to her in her early days, got enthralled and because she could not bear a child, about six months later through the Catholic Convent adopted a little girl. Also we had a visit from John and Nancy Holland who was on Luckyland at the time. Nancy was a very quiet self possessed and private person, most charming and good company, but she liked being self sufficient and not being over social. Her husband John was a tough ex- tank commander from the Western Desert and Italian campaigns. He was an excellent planter with a very down to earth manner and got on well with the estate labour in a firm fair way. He once said to me:
“ You know Mike always respect their religions and their customs. They go back thousands of years. Above all be very careful of their “Mantrums” or charms and their Black Magic. Treat them all with the greatest respect. When I cut my nails for instance I am always very careful to throw them away into the flower bed in case any one tries to perform a “mantrum” on me”.
John and his friends Charles Bagot of the great Welsh Marches family, and Budge Burkett were always vying with each other to do the toughest and most daredevil escapades. They would just take their guns and some food and trek for miles across the virgin low country jungle. Once with a small inflatable they even went from below Kandy on the Mahaweli Ganga, Ceylon’s longest river right down to Trincomalee on trip of 100 miles through virgin jungle with only crocodiles, deer, and wild elephants for company.
In late August I had a good opportunity of taking note of his advice in an extraordinary sequence of events. In April I had been promoted after only a year to be in charge of Hugoland. Mac now had became my VA or consultant, and my directors were Pat Fincher on Welimada and Dorothy Gordon and Mac Leod at George Steuarts in Colombo to whom all normal company matters accounts etc were addressed. So it was that one morning having taken muster at 6 am as usual I walked to the factory, enveloped in that glorious scent of newly made dry weather tea freshly fired, to find a tremendous commotion and the first assistant tea maker in a frightful state wanting to see me privately in the office. Close by the factory were about 6 well appointed staff bungalows for Taylor the conductor, the two Clerks in charge of the office and the three teamakers. The first assistant was a moslem by the name of Hallaldeen, and he was a very active spritely character. He was an excellent employee, and it was largely with his close co-operation and attention to the minutest detail that we were now regularly coming close to the top of the whole island in the prices that we were achieving for our teas at public auction. He had far more youthful energy than the head teamaker Mr Ponnambalam who being elderly and a bit slower, relied more on his experience and management skills. Hallaldeen was particularly friendly with the young assistant clerk also a very capable man called Nadaraj a Hindu Tamil whose family were from Luckyland next door. They would always be doing things together at weekends and even jointly had purchased a cow for milk etc. So when that night at about two in the morning whilst the manufacture of the leaf was commencing, and the factory was all alive with activity, the night watchman came and summoned him quietly to one side:
“Whilst you were working, I was watching. I saw Nadaraj creep out of his house and he has just gone over to yours and is now at this very moment trying to seduce your wife. You must be quick and go and see for yourself immediately that what I have seen is true!”
With that Hallaldeen was off, and sure enough what the watchman had said was true. As he tore in at one door, the clerk dashed out off the other. His wife was upset at having his friends attentions suddenly thrown at her and she said he had threatened to rape her. When I heard all this outpouring, my first instinct was to manage the situation carefully and coolly and then to try to avoid at all costs of having a murder on my hands. Both were excellent employees in good jobs in an industry where there were few vacancies. So I sent word for someone to find Nadaraj and tell him to return to his family at Luckyland whilst I thought over the case and the best way of resolving it quietly. The next morning as I again went to the factory, Hallaldeen met me at the entrance and summoned me to visit his house:
“ Look on the back door step what there is. These devils have started putting ‘Mantrams’ on me”. I looked and saw the door step coloured in pink and white pastel paint, a peeled banana with spikes sticking out and a broken egg over the lot.
“ Take no notice of it at all” I said quietly and calmly, “ if they want to waste their time being damn fools let them. You have a good job here, you are excellent and experienced in your profession, and you have nothing to worry about”.
He was not convinced at all, but we all went on with our work, until next day when there was a repetition with the mantrum placed on the front door step, and each day for the next week I was shown them placed all around the house. I went then to a big function at the Hill Club in Nuwara Eliya and whilst having a drink and a chat with Pat Fincher he suddenly turned to me and said:
“ Mike I have got a problem, my tea-maker was useless and he was also on the fiddle and I have caught him out and sacked him. But my problem now is that I have to get hold of a new Head Tea Maker who must be first class with the highest of recommendations. You don’t by any chance know where I could get hold of someone to fill this post who is really good.”
Immediately my mind sprang to my excellent first assistant Hallaldeen, and I felt that I could back his knowledge and skills against any one in Uva. It would mean a big promotion for him from assistant to Head Teamaker on an Estate four times the size, but in an identical location only a few miles down the road. The opportunity should be dazzling for him and his salary would be at least three or four times what we were paying him. So with all my heart I told Pat of how highly I thought of him and his results were plain to see in our high auction prices printed weekly in the Times of Ceylon, and we agreed that I would send him down for an interview as soon as possible.
Next morning I strode into the factory pleasantly flushed with the good news of his promotion that I was about to tell him. I summoned him into the office and told him of his good fortune, and how lucky he was to get such a senior job so young, on such a good estate with such a fair boss as Pat. He stood in front of me absolutely expressionless, with no hint or smile of pleasure. Quite the contrary. He stood instead utterly dejected, his head bowed down almost ashamed to speak, and then with tears in his eyes he said:
“ This so called “job” you have got for me is not a real job. It is not a promotion to a larger estate. This job is a ‘mantram’ job. It has come about because they have put all these charms on me in order to get me off the estate. You were going to sack Nadaraj for what he had done, and his friends have through their mantrams instead got rid of me through the use of this bait. Under normal conditions, yes I would be thrilled with this opportunity, but as I said this is not a proper job only the mantram working and you are forcing me to take it”.