This book is my autobiography—an x-ray of my soul, carrying an account of my early innocence and shameful idiocies, my dreams and disillusionments, my grievances and ecstasies, my voracious readings and prolific writings, my friends, well-wishers as also conspirators. It points out too my determination and achievements amid jealously-planted road blocks and maliciously-filed court cases. My ancestral and rural background, my grandparents and parents, my early mechanical education, and forced learning in Arts stream, fruitful graduation and my all-round inspiring higher education and rigorous training in the U.S.A. have also been chronicled.

My jobs too have ranged from mechanical to challenging and rewarding ones in which jealousies and conspiracies of my colleagues transitorily impeded my creative and critical writings, but they subsequently spurred me on to move forward with a galloping speed.

To facilitate its good reading, facts have been given a fictional form, allowing humour and fun at my own cost. The reader is bound to experience my company at every step and to find out the clay out of which novels, short stories, essays and other writings have richly been harvested.

Dr Ramesh K. Srivastava, who got his Ph.D. degree from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah (U.S.A.) in 1972, is well known for his creative and critical writings in English. He was awarded a prestigious Fulbright (U.S. Govt.) Fellowship in 1969, the University of Utah Graduate Research Fellowships in 1970-72, and subsequently Senior Fulbright (U.S. Govt.) Fellowship in 1984-85 to work on Henry David Thoreau at Boston (U.S.A.). He was also awarded the University Grants Commission Emeritus Fellowship in 2003-05 to work on Indian Writers in English at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi (U.P.).

Some of his publications are: Hemingway and his For Whom the Bell Tolls, Perspectives on Bhabani Bhattacharya, Perspectives on Anita Desai, Love and Animality: Stories, Cooperative Colony: Stories, Masks and Men: Stories, Neema (a novel), Six Indian Novelists in English, Games They Plan and Other Stories, Colonial Consciousness in Black American, African and Indian Fiction in English, Critical Studies in English and American Literature, Under the Lamp: Stories, The Novels of Kamala Markandaya: A Critical Study, Symbolism in Indian Fiction in English, and Wit and Humour in Indian English Literature, Coils of the Serpent (a novel), Read, Write and Teach: Essays on Learning to Live Together (Essays) and A Christmas Gift and Other Stories. He also edited Thoreau’s Walden for Oxford University Press.

Formerly Professor and Head, Department of English and Dean, Faculty of Languages at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (Punjab), Dr Srivastava also remained the Director, Institute of Languages, and U.G.C. Emeritus Professor at Bundelkhand University, Jhansi. He is currently Professor of English at S. R. Group of Institutions, Ambabai, JHANSI (U.P.)