For me, the first thanks goes not to a person, but to a company. It is Google who inadvertently played a big role in this book. Google's announcement about Kotlin made me curious about Kotlin. I liked it more as I learned it. When I created the Pune Kotlin User Group without any publicity, many good programmers and students joined it out of their own interest. Then, at a Google Developer Group meet, I met Akshay and Hardik, who later became the co-authors of this book. Thus, again, it's Google who brought us together.

Writing this book was a journey. Finding time from our day job was not easy. There were ups and downs. But the team sailed through that because of a good camaraderie. Whenever one of us seemed to fall behind schedule, another one volunteered to chip in. There were healthy discussions on the content, which was made possible through the ability to respect and accept the other person's viewpoint.

I would like to thank my family who accommodated our erratic schedules. At times, after a long day at work, I would again open my laptop and work beyond midnight. My family understood and supported me.

I would also like to thank Captain D. P. Apte for his guidance. He has recently published a book, and his guidance was valuable in the initial stages when Packt started speaking to me about writing this book.

Finally, I would like to thank the Packt team for their guidance and patience. Working with Sandeep Mishra, Akshada Iyer, Adhithya Haridas, and Venkatesh Pai was a pleasure. We especially found that Akshada's comments were always inspiring and her appreciation kept up our spirits while writing the book. I am sure there were other people in the background who we just know as "the team". We noticed that "the team" was eager to help us and had a quick response time whenever the book needed it. It helped in issue resolution, and that made us sail through this journey with a good deal of ease.

– Ashish Belagali