"They complained about the dearth of professionals trained in the tea business. And last year we started the program by training a French youth in all aspects of tea handling, packaging and blending. Now he hasset up his own tea-import business in Paris," he adds.

Subsequently, the news spread out that the Lochan Tea could be the place to learn the tea industry dynamics and now more and more young men and women are coming forward to join the training programme.

Image: A tea garden labourer plucks tea leafs at the Soureni Tea Garden near Mirik Hill near Siliguri. | Photograph: Diptendu Dutta/AFP/Getty Images