"New Delhi, in the year 2000. Staff meetings, lesson modules, a half-hearted little affair with a colleague—this is the bland but comfortable life of Shiv Murthy, a history teacher in an open university. But disruption and change are on their way—an outspoken young woman with a broken knee comes into his life and turns it upside-down; then Hindu zealots attack his writings on Basava, the reformer-poet. With fundamentalism landing on his own doorstep, Shiv discovers that the ideas he has inherited—about history, nations and patriots—are shrinking day by day. And the time of siege is not exclusively Indian; prejudice speaks different languages but has the same destructive message: ‘Only trust those of your kind.’ With love, lust and a perverted nationalism at his heals, Shiv is forced to confront the demands of his times and choose a direction for the future. But first, he must come to terms with his own incomplete past, his fears, and his obsession with a woman who will give him the strength he seeks.

Sometimes funny, often moving, this stark, contemporary narrative unfolds the story of ordinary lives besieged, of men and women struggling to make sense of hatred, ignorance, love and loyalty—to individuals, ideas and the nation. Sharp and gripping, and permeated with a chilling sense of menace, In Times of Siege holds up an uncompromising mirror to India today." (jacket)