The author’s nearly 5 decades of association with Bangladesh recalls the dilemmas of being an academic immersed in the processes of development and change through many roles embracing pure research and the arenas of policy making and activism. Its purpose is to convey the complexities of engagement beyond the comfort of the written page. It explores the continuous interaction between his exposure to the lives of the poor across the country and those designing strategies for poverty alleviation, either as powerholders or via mobilisation to challenge such powerholders in terms of governance and respect for the poor. This book reveals how the author was pulled into these challenges and the associated tensions between political management and the freedoms pursued by civil society, entailing reflection upon the deep structures of the society. e author concludes by asking whether the fragility of institutions witnessed in Bangladesh helps his antennae to identify such fragility in his own society.
