Off the Cuff : An Autobiography and Some Essays

Contents: 1. Prologue. 2. My Dacca days. 3. My father and uncle: our family. 4. At A.C. Datta\'s house. 5. My IIT days. 6. My children. 7. Colleagues at IIT: here is God\'s plenty. 8. My REC days. 9. Those whom I hold in love and esteem. 10. Burdwan University and my Burdwan colleagues. 11. My wife at EEDF. 12. Epilogue. A bunch of ideas and opinions. Index.

"This personal memoir of Dr. S.M. Chanda, of former Professor and doyen among English teachers in the country, shows an extraordinary mind reminiscing with wonderful clarity, precision, genial humour and an occasional irony which is again mellowed by nostalgia as \'fond memory brings the light of other days around\' him.

The author starts with an account of his student days at Dacca. His teaching career spanning more than five decades, he has been a witness to some of the major events in India\'s modern history. He has seen the beginning of free India\'s first technological institute at Kharagppur, has watched its cosmopolitan teaching community with keen interest, and has seen a changing political climate affecting the minds of young people at the Regional Engineering College, Durgapur. He speaks incisively about some of his colleagues at Burdwan University.

The pages, while re-living the history of our land at a most eventful and traumatic and exciting period of transition, carry the rare mark of authenticity that emanates from a genuine, straightforward, upright personality which has all along proudly opted for self-esteem and integrity, sometimes at great cost to himself; at the same time the facile flow of this \'interior monologue\' is flavoured by the aroma of a loving, affectionate heart.

Written in a most charming style the book makes delightful reading, while its value is further enhanced by the inclusion of a few essays by the author." (jacket)