As the author himself says, this is not a jail diary. Nor is it an account of the Emergency. It is rather a 'side light' on the Emergency. Malkani writes about his experience of it-of what he, as a detenu, 'saw, heard, thought and felt' in prison. He spent the twenty-one months in three prisons- Hissar, Rohtak and Tihar-where he met a variety of people, from criminals to top-notch politicians. This is a very human document about them-sometimes amusing,...