My Name is Abu Salem

After Dongri to Dubai and Byculla to Bangkok, the next is the revelation of the life and crimes of Abu Salem that is equally chilling like the others. Based on numerous police dossiers, files, interviews and letters, the events are detailed in their required perspective to highlight the various incidents that outlined the career of the don. Keeping Bollywood at its toes, Salem not only made a business out of it but also made a fortune as well. Salem seems to be the only don who had written an autobiography in jail and that too with the help of two educated convicts and yearns to make a movie script out of it. Starting his career in India, he travelled to Dubai, US and Portugal, among other places evading the authorities under various aliases carving a mobile empire around the globe. The book sketches the character in his true colour and completes the trilogy of the Mumbai mafia.

Headley and I

The book had been a revelation to me about one of operatives behind the Mumbai mayhem of 2008. The key figure behind the plot who served as the intelligence gatherer, David Headley, had been described by many as being not only spy for only one agency, rather being an agent with multiple handlers from multiple agencies. He not only sketched the attack to its gruesome fate but when the time came he even offered sincere account to the investigators. This had been the underlying character of Daood Gillani who proved to be the dangerous spy ever recorded in years to come. Not only did he coax his way thru all the obstacles with apparent ease, thanks somewhat to the lax security of the countries he frequened, but he also played with the emotions of many. One of these was Rahul Bhatt, the coauthor of the book, who, along with his gym instructor Vilas, proved to be the front for Headley's espionage activities. Written in the first person, mainly from the perspectives of both Headley and Bhatt, it reveals how cautiously the intelligence was gathered with clever deceptions and coded transcripts. It is a tail of betrayal and horror penned effortlessly by Zaidi and forewarded by Mahesh Bhatt that brings true emotions in the open and makes us aware of the dormant risk that engulfs the common people everyday. International politics also have been highlighted a bit that seemed to mould certain events of which ultimately the common people becomes sufferer. The author has given a glimpse of the true story behind the horrific strike against humanity that paralyzed a city temporarily while the world watched helplessly.