When Nalima Kariappa took over the day-to-day management of her family's 200-acre coffee estate in Chikmagalur, in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka, after her husband's death in 2007, she never imagined just how far the family business would come.
"Frankly, I wanted to close and go after my husband was diagnosed with cancer. At the point that he was preparing the estate's affairs, we had decided that we would sell and go settle in Mysore or Coorg," says Nalima. "But toward the end, I think he got emotional and sentimental and said no."
