Into the by-lanes of Bhai-land
Khallas: An A to Z guide to the underworld, J. Dey, Jaico, Rs. 275.
It is a world where anaar (pomegranate) is a grenade, “artist” a shooter, atthais (28) an alcoholic, baja (musical instrument) a handgun, blue a Rs. 100 note, “camera” a weapon, “capsule” a bullet, chabbis (26) a young promiscuous girl, “Clinton” fake American dollar bills, “Delhi” is Dubai, “Indian bat” a country-made revolver, jhadu (broom) is an assault weapon, “Kanpur” is Karachi…. Need the list go on? Welcome, to Bombay’s — oops! Mumbai’s — underworld and you will realise that films like “Criminal” etc. have not prepared you for what lies in the underbelly of India’s financial capital.
Crime reporter J. Dey — while providing a glimpse into the world of dons, gangsters and cops who strut the streets of Mumbai — also offers a list of words that is the lingua franca in this world to which normally there is only a one-way ticket. Strangely, the one word that he does not explain is Khallas with which he christened the book!
However, Dey’s decision to arrange his nuggets of information in an alphabetic order makes the book uneven to read and repetitive in parts. The arrangement takes time getting used to, but still piques interest. May be, Dey could consider a more detailed book on one of the leading lights of the dark world. Journalists have written tomes with a lot less information than him, so that should be inspiration enough.
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