Acknowledgements

My journey of writing started with a personal pain that has now manifested itself in the form of this book. For this, I wish to express thanks to my friend Madhumita in the words of Rabindranath Tagore, ‘your hurt is the touch of you and a gift to my life'. I am also indebted to Professor C. T. Bhunia for inspiring me to write this book. When he left our institute on 3 November 2008, it was the saddest day of my life. He was always engaged in creative work despite his busy schedule and he is my guru in the field of technical education. This work is a small token of respect for the great man.

I want to express my gratitude to the Director of Haldia Institute of Technology, Professor M. M. Bag, and my colleagues especially Subhankar Joarder, Arindam Giri, Ramkrishna Das. I am also thankful to Milan Bera, Mrityunjay Maity, Tanuka Sinha and Bapida who are an integral part of the department. I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to Munmun Sarkar for constantly encouraging me during the course of my writing. She regularly enquired about the progress of the book. I'm thankful to my friend Sabyasachi Samantha, who is a lecturer in information technology, for providing necessary information and support. Thanks are also due to my student Dipankar Dutta who helped me in selecting and solving the problems. I am grateful to Pradeep Banerjee who helped me realise my dream of publishing a book.

Finally, my parents Arun Kumar Kandar and Hirabati Kandar deserve special mention for their constant encouragement and support during the preparation of this book.

SHYAMALENDU KANDAR