Off the Record

Ajith Pillai

Hachette India,

384 pages, Rs. 395

This is a collection of the veteran journalist Ajith Pillai’s off-the-record stories from a colourful career spanning nearly three decades. The book begins with a call from a furious Chota Shakeel, the Mumbai don Dawood Ibrahim’s right-hand man, telling Pillai to retract a story on ‘Bhai’ or face the consequence. Pillai goes on to narrate how he followed the sensuous Silk Smitha around one New Year’s Eve; witnessed the first shots of Operation Vijay during the Kargil War; tracked a brigadier accused of high treason across the country; came across embarrassed Congressmen in Kamathipura, Mumbai’s red-light district; and coordinated the coverage of the multi-million-dollar Scorpene submarine scam and the sensational Radia tapes.