Offering a thought-provoking, incisive analysis of Bengal and India, Ashok Mitra’s memoirs, translated for the first time into English, brings contemporary India alive. He dissects the ideals, foibles, prejudices and flaws of the middle class. The Partition of India found him and his family leave the new country of East Pakistan for a new India where they had to re-build lives. He analyses the fledgling Indian democracy, taking readers through the heady days of the five year plans in the 1950s.Throughout the book, he also weaves in the cultural and literary history of Bengal as his literary interests have been as vital as his political ones. Mitra’s reminiscences are enriched by his analysis of Marxism and Marxists in India, of how the Left Front in the state of West Bengal functioned, his stint as minister of finance and planning in the late 1970s and 1980s, and reasons for his sudden resignation. He is open about his disagreements with globalization and liberalization.