Book Review : Mafia Queens of Mumbai by S. Hussain Zaidi with Jane Borges

I reluctantly started on this book, not knowing what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised. So much I  started the review before I was  done with the book.

This book looks at the women who moved in  and ruled the underworld of Mumbai. Strong women who commanded respect in their circles. The book opens with Zaidi being in the cemetery and he is led to the tomb of Jainab, the Wily Old Woman of Dongri. The story of Jainab shows how she rose in the underworld, rubbing shoulders with mafia kings and how she also became a police informant. It follows the rise and fall of the mafia kings, the uprisings and the loss of Jainab’s influence and ends with her death and her daughter inviting Zaidi in her house to give an interview on her mother.

The second story is about Gangubai, The Matriarch of Kamathipura, sold into sex work by her husband whom she had married without the consent of her parents. It shows how she resigned to fate when she realised she could not go back to her parents’ house. It also shows how she became the most sought after sex worker in their brothel then how her abuse by one of the gangsters brought her under the protection of the mafia and also how she created relations with them. The story traces Gangubai’s rise to become a Mistress of a brothel and how she allowed prostitutes to be emancipated, getting invited to huge platforms where she advocated for sex worker’s rights.

The third story is about Ashraf, Femme Fatale, who wanted to revenge the murder of her husband by gangster Dawood, based in Dubai. The story follows Ashraf’s reincarnation to when her revenge went awry and she was killed.

More stories of Drug baronesses, mobsters’ molls, wives of Hindu lords, ganglords’ girls and bewitching beauties complete the 8 chapter book that looks into the lives of women who ruled the Mumbai underworld.