It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help that I had with the preparation of this text.

The first mention goes to my wife, Minal, for her understating of the time I was spending on the book and her time-to-time feedback.

Many individuals have provided comments at various stages on portions of this book. Thanks to my parents, Naveen Rai, Soraya Dastager, Taha Mahmoud, and Shehab Hindam for their continuous support and encouragement and Bhavesh Ratnam, George Varghese, Munmun Singhania, and Kamalbasha Shafi for their direct / indirect contribution to the various chapters of the book. Special thanks to Joselyn Quintero and Yatindra Mehta for finding time to review the book and help make it better. I would like to appreciate and thank my publishing team and graphics team for their splendid work.

Finally, I sincerely thank my editors who worked closely with me: Anand Singh, Utkarsha S. Kadam, and Reshma Raman, without whom the book would not have been possible.