This book began its journey in 1995. It was commissioned by Shailender Choudhry of Student Book Store, but by the time it was completed, he had developed cold feet about the project. After a hiatus of two years, Ashok Chopra, (then the publishing director at UBSPD, New Delhi) stepped in and decided to publish it. The rest, as far as I am concerned, is history. Over a period of thirteen years, it has had twelve reprints, the last reprint being as recently as 2012. Then Ashok decided to step in again and bring out an upgraded edition of the book, the thirteenth reprint. So my acknowledgements must begin with a strong expression of gratitude to my friend and mentor, Ashok Chopra, for his unswerving faith in my writing ability.
I am greatly beholden to Dr Wazir Singh for editing the text meticulously and also for suggesting improvements.
I would like to express my grateful thanks to Dr S.S. Dhillon, for obtaining all the source-material for me, to Sohan Singh, who was my PA at Yadavindra Public School when I was the principal there for deciphering my terrible handwriting and typing out the various drafts way back in 1995, and to the late Neeta Sibia, one of my former colleagues, for patiently reading through each draft and giving me her quiet but very valuable advice. My grateful thanks are also due to K.S. Bhalla, for having gone through the text very carefully, word by word, and suggesting important and meaningful corrections and modifications. And finally, a very big ‘thank you’ to all at Hay House for having given me a beautiful book.