a bold rip-off of armybarmy but a must read (check out the link as well:
"As interest grew in serving in India, Tucker prepared a memorandum of instruction to all new candidates for service in India (they came by the hundreds), and St.John Ervine considers it one of the most heroic documents of mankind: Service will be a matter not merely of being willing to go anywhere, but of wishing to live and die for the particular race to which you are sent. You will be absolutely alone and under close scrutiny. It will be essential to learn at least one Indian language. You must leave entirely and forever behind you all your English dress and habits. Officers will be barefoot. You will avoid the English quarter, but will always live among natives – sometimes in a cave, a shady tree, or someone’s veranda – or in a mud hut 16 by 10 feet. You will cook as they do, and wash your clothes in the stream with them. You have nothing to fear from the climate. The people are different and intensely religious. . Find out what their thoughts are before you share yours. And if you are planning to return, don’t go. We would not think of sending anyone out who did not plan to make it a life work (Ervine, God’s Soldier, Vol I, page 576).