An alternative type of small polaron associated with an off-center configurational distortion can arise from the additional coupling of the electron to some appropriate odd vibrational mode. The off-center polaron is inherently polarizable in an electric field. Consequently, neighboring entities can couple through the universal Van der Waals force to form bipolarons. Implications for the high-T c superconductivity are discussed, bipolarons in superconducting cuprates being envisaged as asymmetric Cu O central-cage linear chains.