In the vast sea of available knowledge on the topic that is ‘Bengal’, this book is a wave navigating its way through the depths. But the journey, necessarily, is a unique one. This story of Bengal glimpses into aspects of the charted routes of known history—political, social, economic, cultural—but is narrated through the prism of the author’s own experiences. Familiar grounds are covered but conveyed through fresh perspectives, interpreted with original insights and infused with new views and voices—those of a gamut of experts including academics and actors, economists and environmentalists, sociologists and scholars, politicians and even psychologists. In telling and retelling bits and pieces of the life of Bengal, a plethora of gaps are plugged—chinks created by time and space—in the story. The author flashes the torchlight into these shadowy nooks and crannies and ferrets out what occurred and where it was difficult to assess what did actually go on. This book, in essence, is a factual, black and white account of selected parts of the history of Bengal, but splashed with the colour of creative storytelling.