Acknowledgements

At beginning of the introduction, we mentioned three classmates who started a discussion group exactly ten years ago.  Clearly, we would not have written this book had they not started that group.  Our thanks to Ashokan, Mohan Alapat and Gauthaman.

Our thanks to our two friends, Ganesh and Venkat Raghavan, who in 2014 spurred the creation of a book we created for the internal use of the class

One person conceived the idea for this book, formulated the steps, reached out to volunteers, motivated people and followed through diligently right up to the stage of completion.   Our classmate, Surya Kolluri deserves special acknowledgement for his tireless efforts and for the extent to which he has been a positive influence on all our lives.

Our grateful thanks to each of the authors of this book, who have taken the time out of their busy schedule to contribute a chapter and or observations.  Indeed, there is not book without them.  The list of names is too long to name each author here.  However, each chapter bears the author’s name and ends with a brief biography.

Our thanks to Suresh Babu, Krishnan, S.R. Uma and Srikrishnan for offering suggestions and editing the book during the course of its development.

Our appreciation for Krish's ( Krishnan's ) wife Rekha and daughter Aishu for designing the graphics for the book cover and Surya Kolluri’s son Rahul Kolluri, for proof reading the manuscript.  Also, thanks to Bharani Rangabashyam for suggesting the title of the book and Suresh Babu’s daughter Anisha Babu for selecting it from over fifty suggestions.

Our affectionate and joyful thanks to Prof. Radhakrishnan Nair, for writing the foreword.  He was our professor while we were in college, later Principal of PSG College of Technology and Vice Chancellor of Vellore University.

Finally, our sincere thanks to several distinguished well-wishers who have taken the time to read this manuscript, and have given us testimonials to support this effort.  Their names are listed with each testimonial.