Dear Hope,
Ever since I started my career — making a transition from a student life — tea has always been an integral part of my life. Probably it was my destiny which had brought me to this beautiful sector unwittingly. I started accepting tea not just as a profession, rather a passion as well. The zeal to make this sector more beautiful didn’t let me explore other career options which could have been more charming and lucrative to me.
However, things aren’t going well with me for last couple of months. Despite my honest effort to make the sector more beautiful, the ‘sector’ isn’t doing justice to me. It seems I was in one-sided love with the sector and now it terribly wants me to leave. I could have left and explored jobs in other fields. However, because of the penchant for the effort I have put into it for almost a decade, I can’t imagine to simply forget everything and change the profession.
Dear Hope,
I never had to pay for the tea I drank in the past decades. It has probably been my privilege to get a complimentary packet of tea from the producers who valued my work. However, I could no longer enjoy that prerogative as the ‘sector’ sacked me temporarily. It had so many implications in my life; but the simple cut off from the complimentary packets of tea had touched my deepest self. It seems I was bereft from my basic social security which I had always enjoyed.
I don’t mean that I can’t afford the exquisite tea from the Himalayan landscape of Nepal. But last week, after the last bit of the complimentary pack finished up, my wife bought a cheap tea dust from the market. It was the first tea pack of any kind to reach her kitchen in so many years that was exchanged for money. Although it appears to be a normal thing to many commoners, it reflects the situation I am going through and I simply can’t endure it. I simply can’t bear that the person who once used to be surrounded with so many varieties of exquisite complimentary tea, has now been brought into a situation where his wife has to buy a cheap dust. Outrageous! isn’t it?
Dear Hope,
I think it was my destiny to meet you at your office last afternoon. In a simple gesture of bidding goodbye to your guest, you offered me a complimentary packet of tea. It could have been the blend of many ‘leftovers’ samples that failed to reach the customers. But to me, it was a whole load of bliss and hope. I simply don’t have any words to describe how indebted I am to have received it. You didn’t just give me a tea; you also delivered a ‘hope’ as your name suggests. With the tea, you also gave me a tacit message that there’s still a hope and the dark stormy night of my life shall also pass.
Thank you so much for the TEA. Thank you so much for the HOPE.
Your Friend,
Gaurab
