Nirad C. Chaudhuri, India’s most controversial writer, was born at Kishorganj in East Bengal on 23rd November, 1877. Brought up in an intellectual environment, by his father a lawyer and his mother, an uncomprising Puritan, he was profoundly influenced by them in his formative years. In this autobiography he gives chapter-by-chapter account of his life: his birth place, his parents, his experiences and adventures. He talks about the race of Indian renaissance, nationalism, politics and takes us through the roads of Calcutta where he spent 32 years of his life. By writing an essay on the course of Indian History, he regards this book as a contribution to contemporary history.

Nirad C. Chaudhuri (Bengali: নীরদ চন্দ্র চৌধুরী Nirod Chôndro Choudhuri) (23 November 1897 – 1 August 1999) was a Bengali−English writer and cultural commentator. He was born in 1897 in Kishoreganj, which today is part of Bangladesh but at that time was part of Bengal, a region of British India.

He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award, in 1975 for his biography on Max Müller called Scholar Extraordinary, by the Sahitya Akademi, India's national academy of letters.[1] In 1992, he was honoured by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom with the title of Commander of Order of the British Empire (CBE). His 1965 work The Continent of Circe earned him the Duff Cooper Memorial Award, becoming the first and only Indian to be selected for the prize.