Bombayman's Diary

  Maharashtra’s biggest festival Ganeshutsav will come to an end this week. The highest crowd pulling pandal of Mumbai through the last several decades has been that of Lalbaugcha Raja in the mill district of the central Mumbai. Here is an excerpt from my book “Bombay After Ayodhya” where I wrote about a tradition associated with the festival : The tall fame of Lalbaug Ka Raja extends till the last day of the festival when the 15 feet tall idol gets pulled out of the pandal for immersion at Girgaon Chowpatty. Lakhs of people participate in this 7-kilometre-long procession, which takes about twenty hours because of the swarm of people throughout. The procession passes through some of the most congested areas of South and Central Mumbai, including a few communally sensitive patches. A large number of policemen are deployed when the procession crosses the Muslim-dominated localities like Byculla, Nagpada and Do Taki. In 1946, taking note of the communal riots that preceded the festi...

  Have you watched "Dil Chahta Hai"(2001) where three friends enjoy their drive on the Mumbai-Goa Highway? Do you remember Amitabh Bachchan starrer "Bombay To Goa"(1972) where a bus full of characters traverses through the scenic road? These movies have showcased how pleasurable the road journey from Mumbai to Goa used to be. Today, Mumbai-Goa Highway has become an antithesis of pleasure. Now, it is a hellish highway. Maharashtra's biggest festival Ganesh Utsav is around the corner. A large number of Marathi speaking people in Mumbai belong to Konkan which is connected through Mumbai - Goa Highway and many of them leave Mumbai to celebrate the festival at their native village. The trains and buses towards Konkan are overbooked. Many people form groups and hire private vehicles to reach Konkan. The Maharashtra government, to please the Konkanis, has waived off the toll charges for to and fro journey. It is an attempt to generate goodwill. But this is just a tok...

  This week, the celebration of "Hindi Diwas" will be in full swing, with schools, colleges, government institutions, banks and language advocacy organizations all getting into the spirit. They'll be hosting seminars and discussions to highlight the growing significance of Hindi on the global stage. However, there will also be some traditionalists expressing concerns about the infiltration of English words into written and spoken Hindi. As someone whose mother tongue is Hindi and who has been a Hindi journalist for nearly three decades, I find myself at odds with this group. I believe it's these die-hard Hindi enthusiasts who compelled airlines to issue warnings to passengers about smoke detectors in airplane toilets using phrases like "Shauchalayon me dhoomra anusandhaan yantra lagei hain" (Smoke detection devices are installed in the toilets). It sounds as if some equipment for scientific research has been installed in the lavatories. Why can't they s...

  In the last two decades, the landscape of crime reporting in Mumbai has undergone a dramatic transformation. Gone are the days when crime reporters chronicled a never-ending saga of violence, featuring shootouts resulting from gang wars and police encounters. In addition to this “routine coverage,” a crime reporters had to demonstrate their investigative prowess by unearthing stories that unveiled corruption and administrative negligence. These fearless exposés, which often made those in power uncomfortable and insecure, were a common sight in the media. Back then, there was no WhatsApp, and a reporter who filed a "table story" was met with disdain. Unfortunately, this style of crime reporting has become increasingly rare, and the blame cannot be solely laid at the feet of crime reporters. The decline of crime reporting in Mumbai is a topic for another discussion. Today, I'm delving into the Telgi scam, a shining example of investigative journalism from Mumbai. This sc...

Mumbai Police is one of the most disciplined, professional and formidable internal security organisations in the world. There was a time when its pace of detecting crimes was compared with the Metropolitan Police of London. However, there have been a few dark pages in its glorious history. One such chapter is of the police rebellion that happened forty-one years ago. What happened on 19 August 1982 was narrated to me by Baban Jadhav. He is one of those numbered policemen who participated in the rebellion and are still alive. Jadhav became my friend in 2003 when I was covering a proceeding at the Kurla court where few members of Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) were being produced after the organisation was banned. Jadhav was the in-charge of the security of the court premises. Recently, I met him after many years at his residence in Thane. “They put me in jail on the occasion of the Ganpati festival. Even if I was guilty, why my family members were thrown out of our govern...

  This week's Bombayphile couldn't be published on Sunday, as I had gone to my native village in Barabanki of Uttar Pradesh to attend my grandfather's funeral. While returning back, I met Mr, Rajesh Pandey at Lucknow. Mr.Pandey is a retired IPS officer and a founding member of the famed Special Task Force (STF) of the UP Police. Since the time Yogi Adityanath became the CM of UP, the STF has been often in the news for killing history-sheeters in the alleged encounters. Mr. Pande, after his retirement, is successfully running a YouTube channel where he tells stories of crime. Recently, he became an author as well by publishing his first book "Operation Bajooka". The book is based on his hunt for Sriprakash Shukla, who had become UP's most dreaded gangster in the 90s and even conspired to murder then CM Kalyan Singh. An hour-long conversation with him at his residence surprised me. Although Mr.Pandey had never served in the Maharashtra Police, he had an in-dep...

Underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim might be sitting miles away from Mumbai in Karachi, but his name often reverberates in the politics of Mumbai. And this has been happening for the last three decades. Several politicians have faced allegations of being linked with India’s most wanted fugitive. The latest on the list is Nawab Malik, who recently secured bail from the Supreme Court. Nawab Malik was a minister in CM Uddhav Thackeray’s cabinet. The Enforcement Directorate arrested him on 23 February 2022 in a money laundering case linked to Dawood Ibrahim. Malik was also a spokesman for the NCP and fiercely targeted the BJP. When the NCB arrested actor Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan, Malik strongly criticized the agency, claiming that the case was fabricated and that Aryan was arrested to extort money from his father. After Malik's arrest, the NCP alleged that it was the BJP’s move to silence him. Nawab Malik’s political boss Sharad Pawar too had faced allegations of being hand in glove wit...