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and deconstructs the 1857 siege of Lucknow in this brilliant, funny, moving novel. He rinses the British imperialists for their arrogance and stupidity, but nobody is spared his satire.

LUCKNOW/AMETHI: The Uttar Pradesh Police tightened security ahead of the Congress' proposed "siege" of the state assembly on Wednesday, with party leaders claiming they were put under "house arrest".