Byculla to Bangkok – Book Review

Byculla to Bangkok 

Mumbai’s Maharashtrian Mobsters

Author – S. Hussain Zaidi

What the Book Says – The High-stakes game of the underworld has new faces working for and against Dawood Ibrahim – the shadowy, manipulative figure that pulls the strings. Dawood’s own deputy turned arch-rival Chhota Rajan, thus-turned-politician Arun Gawli, Amar Naik and his engineer brother Ashwin Naik, and a host of other characters, big and small, walk the pages of this compelling history of the Maharashtrian mobsters who were once dubbed “amchi muley”, “our boys”, by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. Equally fascinating are the stories of the famous – and infamous – policemen and “encounter specialists” who took the gangs on with great success and not too many scruples.

Violence and deceit one expects to read of, but the strength of this book is also its ability to capture the mundane- almost naïve- beginning of what very quickly became the organizes crime and brutal vendettas that held Mumbai to ransom through the last decades of the twentieth century.

Meticulously researched and thrillingly told by the acknowledged expert on the underworld, this is faster-faced than Dongri to Dubai, and even more chilling in its implications for India and the subcontinent.

What I feel - As soon as I got to know about this book I went online to get a copy for myself. I quickly checked the online coupons and offers, these guys never disappoint me you should check it out too. As soon as the book arrived I got to reading without wasting a second. If you have read Hussain Zaidi’s books before then you’ll know his writing style, this book follows the same pattern. What I love about his writing is that he makes you feel that you were actually present when the episode happened. I can visualize everything that he writes. Being from Mumbai and living so close to all the areas that are mentioned in the book, I feel a connection on a different level altogether.

The book is fast paced and you won’t feel like keeping the book down. It is a must read if you like reading about underworld.  Interesting, intriguing and engaging are the three words that best describes this book.

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