Before 1960, Munnar's famed tea plantations were manned by British veterans, sticklers for hard work and discipline. Some of their assistant managers, however, were not. And many were the ploys adopted by these resourceful youngsters -- fresh from school in England -- to outwit their managers.

A common ruse was to soak one's hat and raincoat and hang them up on the bungalow porch, to give the boss the impression that one had been out in the pelting monsoon supervising field operations when one had actually been snoozing the afternoon away! However, not all managers were fooled.

Another trick was to let a couple of bloodthirsty leeches feast on one's legs and then appear bloodied and bruised before the manager in the evening.

Softened by the sight of all that gore, he would never suspect that one had enjoyed an undeserved three-hour post-lunch siestaand that the leeches had been kept imprisoned in a matchbox for use in this ingenious plan!A bolder ploy was to stay in bed after a late night at the club and send the butler or syce, suitably attired in sola topee and field clothes, around the estate on a horse or motorcycle. While ensuring that he was seen, the double would, of course, stay a safe distance from the manager.

That this stratagem worked admirably was, in one instance, borne out by the unsuspecting manager's own admission. ``You must be turning deaf, young man!'' he chided his assistant one day. ``Yesterday morning I hollered to you to come over to where I was, but you just cantered on!''

Emboldened, the assistant played truant once too often. Smelling a rat, one day his shrewd boss spied on him with a pair of binoculars. And he was outraged to discover the butler masquerading as the assistant. Both were promptly fired.

A working knowledge of Tamil was compulsory for all British assistants. Armed with a manual aptly titled Tamil WithoutTears and assisted by a tutor, they laboriously picked up a smattering of the tongue, which they zealously practised on all and sundry. One learner's swift mastery of Tamil expletives surprised many.

It turned out that, with the connivance of a scheming tutor, he had memorised the vilest Tamil profanity without really understanding its meaning. His avowed aim was to impress his manager, who was notoriously foul-mouthed himself, with his prowess with the workforce!

At the club in Munnar the managers had their own chairs at the bar with their names marked on them, and no assistant dared to even contemplate the briefest occupation. Once a tipsy assistant plonked himself into one of these hallowed seats just as its owner strode in. The youngster rose hastily, and so did the chair, stuck to his portly posterior. ``Using my chair without my permission is bad enough, young man,'' fumed the owner. ``But trying to sneak it out of here is intolerable!''

Another assistant found his manager, a dour Scotsman,watering his garden in a relaxed mood one morning. Hoping to curry favour, he offered to help. His boss, notorious for his practical jokes, suddenly yanked the rubber pipe from his hands. ``Look, dammit, this is how it should be done!'' he snapped and, by way of demonstration, hosed the young man down!

Not all youngsters shared the planters' fondness for shikar. One reluctant assistant was roped in for a wild pig `beat' by his overbearing boss, who thrust a rifle and a few cartridges into his hands. At the end of the hunt, the lad reported that he had killed a smallish boar. Not having heard a shot, his boss was baffled. Grinning sheepishly, the youth explained, ``I didn't know how to load the rifle, sir, so when this pig came tearing at me, I clubbed it with the rifle butt!'' He was never asked to join a hunt again.