They saw dreaded underworld dons up close, now they are etching ‘Bombay’ life on paper – The New Indian Express

Express News Service

KOZHIKODE: Opting for a literary turn in their careers, two thick friends from Kuttiyadi have one thing in common to attract readers – their tumultuous lives in Mumbai and overseas. Karunan V P, 65, and Balan Thaliyil, 59, once worked in close proximity to underworld dons as drivers and hotel/bar staffers of their relatives and friends. “I was the manager of Hotel Welco, which was run by Haji Mastan’s son-in-law Shameem in Santacruz West,” recalls Karunan.

“I was also his driver. When Shameem’s sister Seema was married off to Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Mustaqueem Ali, I happened to be an occasional driver to Dawood’s mother Amina Bi too.” Aged 22, Karunan reached the megapolis, then Bombay, in 1978 to eke out a living. He spent 16 years in Bombay and another 19 years in Dubai and Saudi Arabia before returning to Kerala. Karunan has now started jotting down his Bombay memories which include speaking to Dawood over phone when none had heard about the D-Company and a brief encounter with Yeda Gopal in 1993. 

“I attended phone calls a couple of times when Dawood rang up asking for my boss, Shameem. I have a fond memory of Dawood’s mother asking me to get her four coconut saplings of the famed Kuttiyadi brand. But I couldn’t get them to her,” he says. 

Balan, who loves letters
Balan, a school dropout, reached Bombay at 18. While doing myriad jobs — like pan masala seller and hotel waiter — he had seen the likes of Karim Lala, Varadarajan Mudaliar, Haji Mastan and Arun Gavli from close. “I remember the march taken out by Tamil people led by Varadarajan Mudaliar from Dharavi to Azad Maidan with hundreds of people with tonsured heads participating. The march was organised to declare solidarity with LTTE,” Balan remembers. 

He had a penchant for reading from his childhood and wrote his first book in 2010. His Bombay memoir was released recently, titled Theruvil Ninnoraal (A man from the street) published by Terra Books, which he himself edited. Now, a major publishing house has signed the second edition of the book. A chapter in his book relates how he, along with Karunan, roughed up Chhota Rajan in 1986 after Rajan manhandled a staff of Hotel Royal in an inebriated condition. “We were working at the hotel then. We did not know who he was. He was not that dreaded then,” Balan recounted.

The two worked together in Dubai too, for a brief period. 
“Looking back, I feel many things happened because of the youthfulness and vigour of that age. Luckily, books brought me back into life,” Balan says. “I started writing out of compulsion from friends who said such a life should be documented. Besides, I was inspired by Balan’s writing,” adds Karunan. 
They are leading quiet lives with their families in Kuttiyadi, separated by just a few kilometres.