Chota Sahib... You've Had a Busy Day

Book excerpt: At the tender age of eighteen, Charles Nida signed up for a three-year tour of duty in India. But not for him the officers' mess, or the charmed ranks of the heaven-born. He became a "chota sahib" (little man), rubbing shoulders with the ordinary folk of India, treating them as equals and being treated likewise.From 1913-1916 Charles Nida roved the peninsula as a "box-wallah"-a travelling salesman in clothing and general supplies, until he joined a volunteer unit to make Spike Milligan weep tears of mirth, planning to ride into battle on motorcycle-mounted Maxim guns.With little time for the stifling snobbery he encountered everywhere he went, Charles Nida's keen eye focusses a crisp, if sepia-tinted, image of India under British domination as it slid into "the war to end all wars".