Last Tuesday, the last knock of the gavel was heard at 11, RN Mukher jee Road in Kolkata , the headquarters of world 's oldest and biggest tea auction house, J Thomas & Co. On June 21, the Tea Board will move to a unified electronic auction system for all varieties of leaves, bringing an over 150-year-old tradition to an end.The hum, the whistles, the dropping of a pencil, the nods, the catcalls, the handwaving and the smirk -all will be missed at the Nilhat House auction room. Since the first public tea auction in India organized by R Thomas and Co at 2, Mission Row in the city's central business district on December 27, 1861, these informal gestures used in bids made for a quirky and fascinating convention called `outcry auction'.Eight years ago, the auction of all teas except Darjeeling was moved online.But the priciest of Indian teas continued to stick to tradition because it was way too expensive to be bought and sold alongside humbler leaves.The wooden, semi-oval gallery was always full of stylishly dressed buyers listening keenly to the auctioneer reeling out items from his Darjeeling catalogue. A chorus of humming sounds would then fill the air, trying to draw the auctioneer's attention. The bids and counter bids start pouring in and finally the bang of the hammer would seal it for the winning buyer.This ritual will now go online. The `auto-bid' quotes can be keyed in for as many as eight lot sales in two minutes (manual auction sold in nearly double the time -2.2 lots per minute with each lot containing an average of 125kg of tea. Even one rupee above the second highest will be the final winning price. It's fair and transparent price discovery, says a top banker at the Bank of India, the official banker to the e-auction.The industry still thinks that e-auction couldn't handle the huge price variations of Darjeeling in a short timeframe. “Darjeeling tea has so many varieties with so many nuances, specialties, flush dif ference. How will you determine the prices in a second?" asks Bharat Arya, chairman of J Gokal, world's largest exporter of black tea.Darjeeling tea has traditionally been sold in Kolkata, owing to the nearby port and the concentration of exporters' offices. “Auction volumes have seen a decline over the past decade, largely owing to producers directly accessing overseas buyers. Notwithstanding this, the vibrancy of the auction room has never been dampened,“ says Krishan Katiyal, chairman and managing director of J Thomas.The British influence on tea auction was there till the last day , says Arya. “Auctioneers were dressed in suits and ties. Buyers, too, maintained the bidding room decorum by sticking to Western or Indian formal attire. I have never seen people wear chappals in the auction room."The auctioneer always knew who wanted which lot, where to prod and poke, who were the natural competitors and so on. “The 8.30am to 6.30pm auction schedule has never been tedious or boring. Some below-the-belt humour, borderline bullying and verbal brickbats set the mood of the day. But it has always been a gentleman's game," Arya adds.Till the 60s, the buyers and traders in the auction room were served drinks in the late afternoon. “Even till the 70s, we used to have lunch at the expense of auctioneers like J Thomas," he adds. Pradosh Kumar Sen, the past chairman of J Thomas, recalls a fascinating auction room drama starring himself. “ A powerful buyer once replied to my repeated price pleading with: `Don't beg'. I closed the catalogue and asked him to apologize. He had to say sorry and ironically he got the bid with two rupees more. I knocked the hammer but its head broke off and quite magically flew towards the same buyer and hit him. The whole room burst into laughter."Azam Monem, wholetime director at McLeod Russel, the largest producer of tea in the world, hopes that some physical auction will continue to happen, if only for the “very, very costly and exclusive variety" of designer tea. “It is like auctioning rare paintings or a work of art. Remember, London tea market isn't done with physical auction yet," he says.