I would first like to dedicate my work to Brahman with whose grace I was fortunate to be born to an educated, cultured and wealthy family, have good friends, relatives, colleagues, employees, education, jobs and be blessed with an intelligence, reasonable looks, health and a life of great privilege and comfort that probably less than 0.0001% of the people in this world have or could even aspire to in 7 lifetimes.

I would like to first sincerely thank my maternal Grandfather World War 2 Burma Star Medal winner Captain Bolakaranda Bopaiah Kutappa who raised me personally for the first 10 years of my life and formed the foundation of my character.

In memory of my grandfather and his risking his life to save his soldier’s lives in World War 2 which earned him the Burma Star, I have chosen my pen name as Dhyan Kutappa Bollachettira.

I would next like to sincerely thank my maternal Grandmother Dr Rosa Thomas who also laid the foundation of the character of my mother and whose dying dream of making her daughters doctors was made a reality by both my maternal grandfather and my mother and aunt.

I would next like to sincerely thank my paternal Grandfather Bollachettira Mandanna for being a role model to my father who inculcated not just in my father but in all his children the values of integrity, vision, appreciation of legacy and ancestral lands, hard work and devotion and love towards family.

I would next like to sincerely thank my paternal Grandmother Bollachettira Subbava who inculcated the love of farming, cows and value of hard work into my father at a very young childhood age.

I would next like to sincerely thank my mother Dr Sushila Appachu who gave birth to me, educated me and moulded me, laid the foundation of my character and has always been my role model of how an ideal woman as daughter, wife and mother should be with integrity, love, class, grace and unwavering dedication and support and selflessness towards her father, husband and children and the bringing the joy of parenthood to  hundreds if not thousands of poor patients whose children she has brought into this world.

I would next like to thank my father Major (Retd) Bollachettira Mandanna Appachu for all his emotional, financial and educational support to me especially during my critical years in 2006 and also leaving behind to me a valuable legacy in the form of financial capital which I used to build my portfolio, and farms and agricultural lands that also include those which I live on and raise my family on.

I would also like to thank my  father for his valuable contacts like ISKON and Mr Swami who first introduced me to the wonder of Vedanta by saying it brought him peace formed the fundamental basis for me to write this book.

Most of the books I read in my younger years like ISKONs Srimad Bhagavatam came from my father’s library and most of my experiences in later years that I wrote in Things I have Figured Out came from interaction and learning from my father.

I would especially and sincerely like to thank my God given wife for her undying devotion, support and patience with me and her complete and unconditional love and acceptance of me despite all my faults and sometimes the hurt I caused her because of my stubbornness.

Among all the people I have met in this world, my wife is most like me.

Like me she is interested in values, not material interests.

Somehow destiny has brought us together and I would like to think we have found the keys to a successful marriage, though my wife may have a different opinion.

However, she has an advantage over me in these times because she is  a realist and I am an idealist.

A realist sees things as they really are. An idealist sees things as they really should be.

I hope a day will come when idealists trump realists, but for now my wife’s realism has saved me from disaster more times than I can remember.

I would especially like to thank my wife for willingly choosing to be one of the most important parts of my life and standing by me and having faith and immense patience in me despite all the troubles I have caused her.

I would next like to thank my sister for her love and support and also her family for their love and support.

I would also like to thank my in-laws, and immediate family for all they have done for me and for the fact that they always go out of their way just to make me happy.

I would also like to thank my nieces.

I would also like to sincerely than my God given miracle birth son who is my Living God and from whom I have relived the joys have childhood and who also reinforce my view that young children are the true face of Brahman.

I would also like to thank my closest friends, who are closer to me than many members of my family.

I would sincerely like to my neighbour who is an embodiment of Brahman to me and has been taking care of the most poor and helpless beings like abandoned stray dogs even at her advanced age.

I would also like to sincerely thank all those who worked for me and continue to work with me without whose help I would not have been to achieve anything much on my own.

I would also like to thank my colleagues at the various jobs I worked with and also my  teachers and classmates at school and college.

I would also like to thank my pets and livestock from whom I derive simple and unblemished joy, sometimes much more than the humans I deal with including my family and who also reinforce my view that young animals, especially pets and livestock are the true face of Brahman.

I would also acknowledge some appreciation of those who caused me hurt either willingly or unwillingly, I may have not enjoyed my interaction with them, but I surely have learned from it and it made me a much stronger person.

Finally I would like to thank this great land of Bharat and all its people, especially in Bangalore and Kodagu, where I derive great joy every day and see great happiness and hope even among the poorest of people  I deal with on a regular basis.

The real face of Bharat is poles apart of what both the domestic and foreign presstitute media portray.

For a good insight into all that is good and great and what is really going on in Bharat, read The Better India website.