Women leaders of a different kind
This book is a fascinating collection of true-life stories
of women gangsters who lived and worked in Bombay. The author, S. Hussain Zaidi, was a crime reporter for decades and some of his books have been made into
movies.
Not all the mafia queens in this book have blood on their
hands. Jenabai, the elderly Muslim woman who somehow acquired the same name as a thirteenth century (Hindu) Marathi poet, made her biggest and most
damaging impact because she was able to influence another powerful gangster
with her strategic thinking. Then there was Gangubai, who was lured into
prostitution by a young man with whom she eloped and who, instead of marrying
her, sold her to a brothel. Gangubai rebelled by first developing a reputation
for the highest skills of her trade, and later by rescuing other women from the trap she had fallen into, if she felt they were not cut out for life in the cages of Falkland
Road. She became a public figure, and campaigned
for the need for a prostitution belt in all cities.
Some of these female gangsters were drawn to their
profession by dire economic circumstances and some enticed into it by
exploitative males. Some are symbols of glamour; some admirable for their
courage and nimble thinking.
I was lent this book to read by a friend who is a police
officer more than a year ago. That turned into a year in which I did not read
many books at all. Eventually, I read it aloud to Gladys. It turned out to be a
quick read and, though a teeny bit raunchy at times, we both enjoyed it. One
problem with reading a book aloud, though, is that the proofing and editing
flaws stand out. I may not have noticed the many colloquial expressions and common
clichés of Indian newspaper crime-reporting that this book is strewn with if I
had just been reading it to myself. Another thing I wondered about was the
extent of detail in the book: was it fictionalised or was every setting
recreated from what was told to the author in an interview? I tried to contact
S. Hussani Zaidi to find out, but was unable to.
