Like Dork, God Save the Dork is owed to a massive support group of people and devices.

I’d like to thank everyone at Mint, especially R. Sukumar, Priya Ramani, Siddharth Singh, Seema Chowdhry, Pradip Saha and the entire copy desk. Thank you guys for letting me flout deadlines with gay abandon.

Leslie Mathew at ESPN Cricinfo no longer has faith in humanity, word counts or invoices. I am so sorry Leslie.

Much thanks is due to Chiki Sarkar, Paloma Dutta, Paromita Mohanchandra and everyone else at Penguin. Chiki, my insecurities stood no chance in front of your boundless enthusiasm.

I am grateful to Mita Kapur and her team at Siyahi for their literally limitless capacity to wait for paperwork and contracts.

Thanks and assorted alcohol is due to Surjo Sinha, Gautam Chandrasekharan, Shashank Khare, Anjali Grover, Tulika Maheshwari, Ashwath Venkatraman, Priya Kejriwal, Ankur Goyal, Indhuja Venkatesan and Vanshree Verma. Group hug everyone.

Ravi Singhvi and Shruti Thakar: I platonically hug and kiss both of you.

I cannot even begin to say how thankful I am to Samit Basu. Samit has the uncanny ability to somehow be the first person to read my books and give me frank feedback. Samit is a friend, mentor, marketing manager, evangelist and good luck charm all rolled into one. I’d never thought it was possible to like a Bengali so much.

How can I even begin to thank my family in Kerala, Delhi and Highbury?

London. You beauty. Your cold winters, muggy summers, cruel rains and copious televised comedy kept me indoors and away from distractions. When I was bored you gave me museums. When I was thirsty you gave me Guinness. When I was hungry you gave me free-range organic burgers. There is no greater city in the world. I will love you as long as my visa is valid.

But most of all I want to thank K. Your ability to laugh at the same bad jokes, every time you are forced to read them, is truly remarkable. There is so much I have to thank you for. Maybe I’ll write a book …