Bombay 3

By Jitendra Dixit

Mumbai is an ever-evolving city, bustling and brimming, never sleeping for a wink. But the past four decades brought upheavals of great magnitude that shaped the city as we know today. Marred by communal riots, gang wars and terrorism, the spirit of Mumbai has emerged indomitable every single time.

Born and raised in the lanes of Bombay 3, this is the story of Jagan Kumar who dreams of being a television journalist and changing the world. But once he achieves this, he realises that television journalism has lost its path, now afflicted with sensationalism, corruption and bias. As a crime reporter, he comes across various unscrupulous means that law enforcement agencies adopt to combat organised crime syndicates. He is shocked to witness interdepartmental rivalry that often jeopardises public security. Disenchanted, in conflict with his conscience and confused about his calling, he is about to quit when something happens that changes the course of his life.

Bombay 3 begins from the bylanes of old Bombay of the seventies and then takes you to Mosul in ISIS's Iraq of 2014 and finally to the streets of Bangkok where the underworld of Mumbai has spread its tentacles. A fast-paced thriller, it answers certain questions about life in Mumbai and raises a few new ones.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Mar 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9789390358779

Book preview

1

1979: Bombay Number 3

‘USSR conducts multiple nuclear tests.’

‘Ayatollah Khomeini seizes power in Iran.’

‘Saddam Hussein takes control of Iraq.’

‘Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.’

‘USA takes aggressive stand against USSR.’

1979. It was quite a newsful year for the world. It was one of those years when the Cold War was at its worst. The aggressive stance of superpowers fuelled fears of a Third World War and a deadly arms race threatened to destroy the planet multiple times. Newspapers were full of scary stories and the intellectual class talked about the perils of war. The whole world was divided into two power blocs. Although India claimed to be a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, its proximity to Soviet Union was evident. While the rest of the world was discussing the Cold War, South Bombay’s Masjid Bunder, which falls under postal code 400003, was witnessing its own form of power struggle—the gang wars. It was a world in itself with its own colours, struggles and politics.

Masjid Bunder was originally a part of Isle of Bombay, which was one of the seven islands of Bombay that were connected together by reclamation of the sea to form the modern-day city of Bombay by the mid-19th century. Till 1661, the islands were under the Portuguese rule and were handed over to England as dowry when the Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza married Charles II, King of England, Scotland and Ireland. One of the oldest historical structures in the locality is Juni Masjid on Samuel Street. Masjid in Urdu means mosque (an Islamic place of worship) but in reality, the building was a synagogue (a Jewish religious centre). Historians reveal that this synagogue was built by a Jewish soldier serving in the British East India Company who was captured by the ruler of Mysore Tipu Sultan. On the request of Tipu Sultan’s mother, he was pardoned and returned to the British people in a prisoner swap deal. After being released by Tipu Sultan, the commander settled in Bombay and constructed a synagogue to express his gratitude towards the almighty. The synagogue was initially built at a different location but was reconstructed at Samuel Street in 1860. Also known as the Gate of Mercy Synagogue, it is the oldest synagogue in India. This synagogue at the southern end of Samuel Street also indicates a miniscule presence of Jewish population. The area adjacent to Samuel Street is known as Israel Mohalla.

While Masjid Bunder derives one part of its name from this synagogue referred to as Masjid, it gets the other part of its name from the ports. Port in Marathi is called ‘bunder’. There are numerous ports on the eastern coast of Mumbai, such as Carnac Bunder, Dana Bunder and Mallet Bunder. The name ‘Masjid Bunder’ got official sanction when a station in the area was named ‘Masjid’ by the Indian Railways.

Being once under the rule of foreign powers and its proximity with the ports has given the city its cosmopolitan character. The grand structures built by the Portuguese and the British are reminiscent of the bygone era. The original residents of Bombay are Koli fishermen and Agris who were engaged in salt production and rice farming. Over the years, a number of migrants belonging to various parts of India settled in Bombay. Masjid Bunder is a microcosm of the city that is a confluence of diverse cultural and linguistic influences.

Take a walk from Mumba Devi Temple to Masjid railway station during any time of the day and you will find it heavily crowded and hear a variety of sounds. In fact, Masjid Bunder is one of the areas with the most noise pollution in South Mumbai. You may see a sweating handcart puller who is exerting more energy in shouting to make way in the crowd than pulling his heavily loaded cart. These handcart pullers are known as haathgaadiwalas. The two-wheel cart is like a see-saw that is pulled and pushed by one or two men. Haathgaadiwalas are mostly from Bihar or Uttar Pradesh, but you may find a few local Maharashtrians also pulling the carts. The carts they pull are typical to only this part of the city. They are mostly employed by small wholesale dealers of food grains, tarpaulins, stationery, industrial gadgets, clothes and so on. Haathgaadiwalas take utmost care that they or their carts do not touch anybody in the crowd. Even a slight brush with somebody can bring a lot of trouble for them. You may see a poor haathgaadiwala being slapped by young motorcyclists for ‘touching’ their bikes or obstructing their way for too long. Incidents of road rage are common in this area. Dozens of handcarts occupy a major part of the road, which is already narrow and encroached by the stall owners and hawkers on both sides. Taxi drivers dread these haathgaadis and this is one reason why they often refuse to accept passengers that want to travel to this area. Experienced taxi drivers avoid coming this way during the day. Only the ones who have recently started the job of taxi driving accept passengers for Masjid Bunder and after two or three times of being stuck in traffic for hours, they too learn the lesson —‘Say no to passengers for Masjid Bunder.’

Considering the heavy congestion, Bombay Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST; later Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport) operated only a single route on the road. A red double-decker bus of route number 102 connected Masjid Bunder with Malabar Hill on the western coast of the city. The bus drivers considered it to be a punishment to be deployed on this route as it was tough to manoeuvre the gigantic bus on a road where every inch was occupied by either humans or other vehicles. They had to constantly keep their hand on the horn to seek way. Like taxi drivers, they too were at the risk of being beaten in case their bus brushed somebody from the locality.

Apart from the deafening shouts of haathgaadiwalas and continuous honking from various vehicles, you can also hear many interesting sounds on this walk of about a kilometre. You could find audio cassette stalls (and once cassettes went out of fashion, audio compact discs [CDs] stalls) that are mainly owned by Muslims almost always blaring Bhojpuri songs to entice north Indian customers who alight at Masjid railway station to visit Mumbadevi Temple. These stall owners sync their business with the season. During monsoon, they sell umbrellas and tarpaulin sheets; near Diwali, they sell crackers and Holi is the season to sell colours and waterguns. Moving towards the station, you will find numerous shops on each side of the road that are run mostly by Hindu and Muslim Gujarati businessmen. From stationery and clothes to dry fruits and perfumes, everything is sold here in wholesale and retail. Once smuggled foreign cutlery items, brought to India under the guise of ‘Transfer of Residence’ to avoid custom duty, was also sold on the roadside. Items like perfumes, calculators, watches, toys and condoms were called TR ka maal in the local lingo. Small retail shopkeepers from other parts of the city throng to this area for supplies. Heavy vehicles like trucks are another common sighting in this area. Food grains and other items brought from different parts of India and the world find their way to the storehouse and shops of the wholesalers in the area. Trucks and pickup vans park beside the roads till the goods are unloaded or loaded. This adds to the traffic chaos in the area. The trader who calls the truck bribes the local traffic cops to look the other way. Getting posted in Masjid Bunder turns out to be heaven for such cops. On Saturdays, traffic often creates hell for Masjid Bunder as traders want to clear previous week’s deliveries before a new week begins. The entre road is clogged with haathgaadiwalas, trucks and tempos, and it takes at least 45 minutes to cover a kilometre’s distance from Mumbadevi Temple to Masjid Bunder station.

After sunset, the pavements of Masjid Bunder were occupied by labourers who mostly hailed from Purvanchal or eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They were condescendingly called bhaiyas by non-north Indian people. Bhaiya in Hindi means brother but in Bombay’s lingo it was used in a disrespectful manner to address the north Indians from the cow belt. They cooked their food on coal sigris and slept on the footpath at night. The footpath was their roofless home in night. They were pestered not only by mosquitoes but also by drug addicts who often stole their utensils, clothes and money to sell to junkmen. Even if the labourers caught them in the act of stealing, the thieves would violently attack them. Police didn’t take any cognizance of their complaints. Their life used to become terrible during monsoon when rains played havoc in the city for more than three months. It was poverty and lack of employment which had compelled them to leave their native states and endure a miserable life in Bombay. However, even in Bombay, they had a hand-to-mouth existence and were hardly able to save any money to send back to their families. If any one of them died, they couldn’t afford to send the dead body back home and cremation would be done in Bombay by raising some money.

Another group of people who represented the poor and hardworking population of the area was maharajs. Although maharaj in Hindi means king, the lifestyle and struggles of these people was in contrast with this name. These were people who had migrated from rural areas of Rajasthan and took up the job of delivering water to offices located in multistoried buildings of the city. They had clandestine arrangements with residents of a few buildings who allowed them to fill their drums from common taps when the municipal corporation released water early morning. The drums were kept on the footpaths near the entrances of the buildings. These maharajs lived a very tough life. Every morning, they would get up at 5 am to fill the drums. Around 9 am, when the offices in the locality opened, they used to begin delivering water in them. Each of them carried two vessels of 5 litres each, one on their head and another on one of their shoulder. Wearing just a white undershirt and shorts, these thin men carrying the burden on their bodies climbed the stairs up to fifth or seventh floors of several buildings to do their job. After finishing delivery of water to their customers they got occupied with some other labour-oriented job till late evening. They were a bit luckier than the north Indian haathgaadiwalas and as they didn’t eat or sleep on the footpath. They cooked and slept in the common areas of residential or commercial buildings, such as the passage or space near staircase. Often their dinner was dal baati, traditional Rajasthani food, which they cooked slowly on a coal-based stove.

A large number of Bengali gold artisans also stayed in Masjid Bunder. They came from the slums of Calcutta and impoverished rural areas of West Bengal. Marwari jewellers of neighbouring Zaveri Bazar are their employers. Five to ten artisans stay in cramped rooms of old buildings. Throughout the day, such rooms act as their workshops where the artisans are busy working on their orders, which include crafting rings, necklaces, nose pins, bangles, etc., and at night, the rooms turn into their residences. They enjoy Sundays by cooking hilsa (a type of fish) and its smell engulfs their entire floor. This smell of cooking fish is disliked by Gujarati Jain residents of the buildings and they often quarrel with the artisans over it.

A gang of crooks also operated on the road and was always on the lookout for someone gullible to prey upon. The modus operandi of the gang was to approach a pedestrian, who had alighted from a train at Masjid station, with a fancy imported wristwatch. The crook would lure him by claiming to be in distress and saying that he desperately needed some money. To appear more believable, he would offer to sell the ‘precious’ watch at a throwaway price. Once the victim was convinced that he was being offered a great deal and agreed to buy the watch, the crook would tell him that he would pack the watch in a box and hand it over to him. After receiving the money, the crook would give the box to the victim and request him to open it only after reaching home. When the victim opens the box at home, they would receive a rude surprise—the box had no watch but a piece of stone. There were three to four such crooks that operated on the main road of Masjid Bunder. They would cheat five to six persons every day. The crooks took turns to commit the crime so that they were not caught. Once a crook cheated somebody, he wasn’t seen on the road for the next three or four days. Most of their victims were innocent north Indians who were new in the city.

A sort of gambling known as ‘matka’ was also very popular in the area. It is like an illegal lottery system where the person placing the bet chooses certain numbers and if his numbers are selected then he wins cash. Matka dens were often located in the common passage area of old buildings and a curtain was hung to hide the ongoing activity from public gaze. Most of the patrons of such matka dens were people who worked as peons, office boys, salesmen, waiters, hawkers or labourers who placed bets in the hopes of earning some extra income. However, this game was highly addictive and many lost all their earnings and savings playing it. Matka dens were run by mafias who bribed the cops to look the other away and let them run their business unhindered. Such mafias often violently clashed with their rivals and matka business often caused bloodshed in the locality.

The class of patrons who visited these matka dens also spent their evenings at illicit liquor joints setup by mafia gangs in the interior streets of Masjid Bunder. They served hooch of various flavours, ranging from orange to lemon to apple. Like matka dens, such illicit liquor joints were also hidden using curtains, however, the presence of chakna (snacks with liquor) sellers (such as boiled eggs, grams and potato chips) would give a hint about the location. Occasionally, the local police raided them, booked a few people and released them on bail after a few hours to show that they were taking action against such illegal joints.

Right outside the Masjid station, a group of rural Gujarati women stood every evening to sell datoon sticks while shouting, ‘Rupya ma be lai lo’ (buy two in one rupees). Datoon is a sprig of Neem or Babool tree used to brush teeth. Most of the customers of these datoon sellers were Gujarati Brahmins and Jain businessmen who found datoons to be safe for use rather than the toothpastes produced by the multinational companies. They could never be sure about the ingredients of such toothpastes and feared that it may contain something that is against their religious beliefs.

Near these datoon selling women, one could find teenagers selling photocopies of the day’s summary of Bombay Stock Exchange. The bunch of stapled papers described the opening and closing prices of the shares and highlighted the best and the worst selling stocks of the day. The boys used to shout, ‘Aaj ka quotation’. Like datoon, the buyers of these stock market quotations were also mostly Gujaratis who invested in shares.

The area has a majority of Muslim population. Most of the Muslims speak Gujarati and belong to communities like Memons, Bohras, Patels, Khojas and so on. A part of Samuel Street, which is also known Pala Galli, is inhabited by Shia Muslims. The non-Muslim population in the area comprises of Hindu Gujaratis, Marathis and a small number of North and South Indians. A small number of Sindhis who migrated from Pakistan post-Independence also stayed in the locality. On a street named Daryasthan, a temple dedicated to Lord Jhulelal was constructed. Daryasthan Street was also known as ‘Khau Galli’ (eating street) as there were numerous stalls serving street food. From South Indian dishes such as masala dosa, idli sambhar, utappa to North Indian dishes such as samosa and chhole bhature were available there.

Most of the families belong to lower or middle economic class. You may not see many people who could afford a car here and those who can afford, usually buy a second hand one. Many well-to-do families prefer motorcycles instead of cars due to the traffic and parking woes in the area. The bylanes of Masjid Bunder are controlled by powerful parking mafia who grab the parking space and then extort heavy amounts from the traders in exchange of letting them park their trucks. If a resident confronts these mafias and parks their own vehicle at the space grabbed by them, that person is not dealt with directly. Next day, the vehicle owner would find the vehicle damaged. Either the tyre would be flattened or the side mirrors or parking lights smashed. The damage is a kind of warning to the resident by the parking mafia, essentially saying, ‘Don’t mess with us. The damage could be more next time.’

People live in old buildings which are as old as 200 years. Such buildings could be identified by the red Mangalorean tiles on their roofs. Although multi-storeyed towers with more than 20 levels are being constructed now in the area, most of the old buildings in Masjid Bunder have a maximum of five or six floors. There are very few buildings in the locality with elevators and residents have to climb up the stairs to reach their house. Most people live in one- or two-room house with common toilets on each floor used by all the residents of the building.

A one-room house serves as an all-in-one arrangement with kitchen, cupboards, bed, praying area, television, etc., in the same room. There is a grave issue of privacy as large families are forced to live together in tiny rooms. When a boy in a family gets married, the parents leave for pilgrimage or head to their native place so that the couple could get privacy and time to ‘make efforts towards family expansion’. Even in the absence of parents, privacy is not assured, considering the intrusions by neighbours who may often come to borrow sugar or salt. And then, there are hawkers who knock the door to sell pani puri (spicy water-filled balls), utensils or grocery. On each floor, there are three to four rooms, set so close to each other that the aroma of cooking from one ‘home’ or room would make it apparent to everybody who is cooking what.

Unlike the flat system that is mostly prevalent in suburbs, the occupants of these rooms are not their owners. The housing in this area, like the other areas of old Mumbai, has a unique system called pagadi. As per this system, the building is owned by a landlord and residents buy their rooms from them. Although the purchasers pay the amount equal to the prevalent real estate price in the area, they don’t get the right of owning the room that they have ‘purchased’. Legally, they are just tenants. They live in the rooms and pay monthly maintenance also. A person could own a flat by spending the same amount in suburban Mumbai. The landlord is called ghardhani and the purchaser is called bhadoot (tenant) in local housing lingo. Although technically the landlord is the owner of the room, he/she cannot sell the room without the bhadoot’s consent. If a bhadoot wants to sell the room, then he/she has to pay 1%–2% of the total deal in cash to the landlord. With the redevelopment of old buildings in the area, pagadi system is on the decline.

The social life in this part of Mumbai is quite different from what one sees in suburban Mumbai. In fact, life in old Mumbai almost resembles the life in Indian villages where everybody knows everybody. An occupant of a room in Masjid Bunder’s old building knows what the neighbour is doing, how many members are there in the neighbour’s family, which school do their children go to and what medical ailments do their parents suffer from. Almost everyday, there is a gathering of housewives near the staircase (which is the only common area in the building apart from toilets) where personal information, gossip, etc., is shared and they also indulge in backbiting against those who are not present that day. Youngsters unite for gulli cricket (street cricket) matches and to organise festivals like Ganesh Utsav and Janmasthami. Quarrels are also frequent, especially among the housewives and most of the time the reason for these quarrels are petty issues, such as who will first get to fill water from the common taps, someone putting their belonging close to someone else’s house or someone playing loud music. Rarely are such matters reported to the police and even in cases where the cops are called, both the sides would usually get a verbal bashing along with a warning that if they fought again, they would land up in jail. The hostility between the warring families would end within days and housewives of both the families are soon seen at the gossip corner near the staircase.

Masjid Bunder was communally sensitive and had witnessed many communal skirmishes. The area turned into a cantonment during festivals. On Ganpati immersion day, the mosque on the main road was surrounded by armed cops to ensure that no mischief transpired. Whenever a procession with Ganpati idol was to pass in front of the mosque gate, cops would stop the band 100 metres before and escort the revellers till 100 metres after the gate. This was to prevent people praying in the mosque from getting disturbed by the loud music, and thus pre-empt any violent reaction from them. A small platform was erected near the Masjid gate where the local leaders of Muslim community were invited and they showered Hindu revellers with flowers and welcomed them. This was to placate some local leaders of the Hindu community who alleged that cops were not allowing them to celebrate their festival freely due to