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of Asian Studies 58:1, 1999, pp. 103–125). Nilanjana Chatterjee’s excellent dissertation, “Midnight’s Unwanted Children: East Bengali Refugees and the Politics of Rehabilitation” (Brown University) has unfortunately never been published. Annu Jalais’s article, “Dwelling on Marichjhampi,” is also yet to be published.

I am grateful to B. Poulin and Houghton Mifflin for permission to quote from A. Poulin Jr.’s 1977 translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies: this remains, for me, the definitive English rendition. All references to Bengali versions of the Elegies are from the superb translations published by Buddhadeva Basu in the late 1960s. These are now available in the collected edition of Buddhadeva Basu’s poetry, Kabita Sangraha (Pancham Khanda), edited by Mukul Guha (Dey’s Publishing, Kolkata, 1994).

I would also like to acknowledge the help, support and hospitality, variously, of the following: Leela and Horen Mandol, Tuhin Mandol, the Santa Maddalena Foundation, Mohanlal Mandol, Anil Kumar Mandol, Amites Mukhopadhyay, Parikshit Bar, James Simpson, Clint Seely, Edward Yazijian, Abhijit Bannerjee and Dr. Gopinath Burman. To my sister, Dr. Chaitali Basu, I owe a special word of thanks. For the care they have taken with this book, I am greatly indebted to Janet Silver, Susan Watt and Karl Blessing, as also to Agnes Krup and Barney Karpfinger of the Karpfinger Agency.

The support of my wife, Debbie, was of inestimable value in the writing of this book. To her, and to my children, Lila and Nayan, my debt is beyond reckoning.