As the world is shaken by a virus, Shobhaa De – a writer who understands the human heart and how it beats – felt the need to document not just what she is going through personally but what the entire world is experiencing. And out of this need emerged many unique narratives ...

Lockdown Liaisons is a collection of short stories, from the varying perspectives of both men and women – young and old, brave and cowardly, cheerful and weighed down – each story a unique offering from a writer who understands how very fragile human relationships can be as they break, suffer and are redefined under trying circumstances.

In these pages of Lockdown Liaisons, we have the touching story of a special little boy and how he negotiates his intimate relationship with Ganpati during the lockdown. Then there are the deluded and feisty ruminations of a snobbish old lady who never understood why her husband left her for the woman that he did. In another story, entertaining and satirical, a single man struggles to manage life under lockdown with his young son and tries to forge a relationship with an attractive neighbour whose daughters go to school with his son. And then in ‘In Malibu Mansions’ we have a woman coping with losing her high profile job during the lockdown and the news that a neighbour has died by suicide by jumping off her balcony.