According to Sikka, he stumbled upon the story during the Kargil conflict. He acquired the story from an Indian army officer who told him of how his mother, a Kashmiri Muslim, had married a Pakistani Army officer to provide India with classified information during the 1971 war. Sikka eventually managed to meet the officer's mother in Malerkotla, Punjab where she eventually unfolded further elements of her story. As a part of her duties in Pakistan, she used to tutor General Yahya Khan's grandchildren.