"It was an assignment that was at once challenging and intimidating... I was going to be setting foot on enemy territory."
 
Amit Baruah was one of only two indian journalists allowed to be based in Islamabad during three tumultuous years of Pakistan?s history.
 
The author recounts, with some amusement, his family?s experience of life in Islamabad society between April 1997 and June 2000?all of it conducted under the suspicious gaze of Pakistani intelligence agents who shadow Baruah, his wife, and daughters everywhere - including into friends? living rooms.
 
He records his frustration at being disallowed from reporting freely on the ground - many events that defined indo-pak relations, even as death or kidnapping forever stalks him.  Three incidents haunt Baruah:
  Not being cleared to attend the funeral, in 1998, of john joseph, the bishop of faisalabad who committed suicide in protest against Pakistan?s blasphemy? laws,<