Bashu is the shortened form for Badshah which Ahmed Khan liked to be called. Bashu dada gave a lot of importance to his physique. Zaidi in his book shows him as someone who wasn't the best at what he did. That was smuggling. Smuggling of stolen goods from the gulf shores to Mumbai. Irrespective of that, Bashu was a successful smuggler and is considered mentor to Khalid Pehlwan who happened to be the mentor to Dawood Ibrahim. Dawood was already a streat hoodlum. Khalid taught him how to be a professional in the world of crime. He taught him fighting techniques. He taught him how to make relations. Negotiating, bargaining etc. In short, Khalid introduced him to the big world. He graduated from the world of what the pathan gangsters lived to that of international crime bosses. Such as Pablo Escobar and other big wig Arab and middle eastern smugglers.
Today Dawood is literally invincible. I don't think any of Dawood's foes would have imagined that he would one day work hand in hand with the ISI. There's another way of looking at this. Gangsters such as Bashu dada, Haji Mastan, Yusuf Patel or Vardrajan Mudaliar never came so much in the radar like Dawood. That perhaps is what is called smart criminalship, if there is such a word. Coming back to Bashu dada, he mainly operated from a place called Tehli Mohalla, a territory within Bohra mohalla. This was literally just a few yards away from Karim lala's headquarters which was in Bohra mohalla. Bashu dada use to spend a considerable amount of time in re creative activities of the body. Mainly wrestling. He used a ground near where he operated from, owned by the local municipal corporation. He encouraged competitions and used the open ground as a gym for workout of not only his men. Also others passionate in the art of wrestling and body building would join in. One such person was Khalid Pehlwan. Bashu dada, back then, in the 1960's and 1970's rode a white Mercedes Benz. Bashu dada was said to be an established don even before the time of three prime dons of Mumbai. Lala, Mastan and Mudaliar. Bashu dada left smuggling in his later career. By this time, the other dons I mentioned took over the reigns of Mumbai. Haji Mastan controlled and monopolized the crime of smuggling. Also during this time, his gang had a fight with the Dawood gang. It began to get more and more difficult for him so survive after this. This was about the time, he decided to leave his world of crime and settle down in peace. However, people close to him during his last days say he died in poverty. Bashu dada lived in a house in a building he owned towards the end of his life. His house was near Gul house. Gul house belonged to Karim lala's brother, Rahim Khan. This is also the childhood house of gangster Samad Khan. The building opposite Gul house was owned by Bashu dada. Bashu dada owned many such properties in and around Mumbai. It was a three storey building. As time passed, he started giving parts of the building on rent. He had a small portion of the house on the first two floors of the building to himself. The adjacent, Gul house was a meeting spot for the pathan gang and their guests. They conducted high profile discussions regarding their activities in Mumbai. Karim Lala and Haji Mastan often frequented the building. Just in front of Gul house was the local YMCA often frequented by the rich and high of the area. YMCA's swimming pool and baby garden were situated right in front of Gul house and Bashu dada's house. Baby garden because it was meant for toddlers. The road beside YMCA is called the YMCA road. The entire area came in the corner of the dividing line between Agripada and Bombay Central. An assumed, imaginary line basically dividing Agripada and Bombay Central. The YMCA road runs between Jagjivan Ram hospital and Maratha Mandir theatre, both well known landmarks.
People who lived near Gul house often saw Bashu dada stare out of the window to the open. They often commented that this was once the king of Mumbai and now a prisoner of his own household. Parmar goes a step ahead and says that Bashu dada also had difficulty with basic amenities in his later life. He would ask money to guests who would drop in. They would lend him two thousand or three thousand rupees, the Bashu dada who once helped them when he was king of Mumbai. He would use that money for food as he had difficulty even affording that. This was the same Bashu dada who rode around the city in a Mercedes Benz, dressed in white and a sunglasses. In 1989, Bashu's son and his friend, a smuggler by the name, Naved Khan demolished the house and build a twenty two storey building in the site called Raza towers. Around the same year, in 1989, Naved Khan was involved in a famous drug case where his vessel was seized in the Atlantic ocean by the American agencies. The case was popular because it was one of the rare cases of a vessel being caught in high seas. He earned a lot of money through smuggling. Naved Khan was murdered in South Africa where he escaped to exile to avoid the authorities.
Raza tower where Bashu dada's house once stood.
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