At Sion Koliwada in search of a Narcotic Queen

 I must say that the best thing about my job is the unexpected twists and turns that I face in my everday life………

I came across a  book called the 'Mafia queens of Mumbai' by Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges.The moment i read the book,it gripped me and  I immediately decided that i wanted to do a radio special story on this and thankfully, my team agreed.

The book consists of the life of 13 ladies detailed in 13 of its chapters - some of them about the Don’s wives, girl friends, sisters and some of them about the (Female) Don themselves.

So on the 16th of September 2011,a friday I went in search of one Mafia Queen based at the Sion Koliwada named Mahalakshmi Papamani, who was during the early 90’s and 2000 Big time into the drugs business.

So, walking in those unknown yet adventurerous lanes, I was accompanied by a  colleague of mine; as i was told not to go without police protection; inspite of the fact that I preferred going without one ,incase, she refuses to speak about her adventurers in front of a police personnel……..

  We reached there at around 4.30 pm and the only address I knew was the Sion Koliwada slum, and the mutton shop near the Kali Mata Ka Mandir. To my surprise there were more than one such temple and a road full of mutton shops.

The entire lane with the butcher shops did frighten us a bit. On the corner of the road a bunch of fat eunuchs were playing cards, and everybody kept glancing our way. Did make us feel quite uncomfortable.


As my collegue  thought that we are going to the Bhindi Bazaar he came all dressed  in a Pathani suit. Made us look quite funny – a young 5’3’’ female accompanied by a 6’.3 ‘’ male  walking down the busy narrow lane of the Sion Koliwada slums, also known as the mini Tamilnadu.

We kept on roaming the area for about two hours and still could gather no information,nobody knew her or were just pretending of not knowing her.

Finally, one lady near Kali mata ka Mandir could recollect her memory and told us that she could probably be found around the very place from where we had entered the slum.this time i was not frightened at all as now my frustration level had gone to another level – no one was ready to speak about her as if she were a myth not someone who really existed….

Finally one man took pity on us and came forward and told us that Mahalakshmi Papamani had left for her native place. On pressing for further information, he just said that once she was out of jail; she left everything and went to her native place. My further inquiry only made him look angry and his voice loud. I could understand that it was a lost battle…. there was no point provoking him any further and so we finally left the Koliwada slum.
On our way back, I had a strange feeling – a satisfaction that I had finally managed to get someone who knew who Papamani is and a sadness that I could physically not meet her.

but one thing I was sure of was that she had the brains not only run a dangerous and illegal business but also to confuse and misled the police force for years.


On my journey back, I kept on thinking to myself that may be she was one  among the gathered ladies near Kali mata ka mandir or probably the one who directed me..probably,. she was watching us the whole time we were there and was smiling at our frustration and her smartness.