Nagpada

Nagpada is an area in South Mumbai. It is a mostly Muslim inhabited area. Nag is the Marathi word for cobra. A Nag temple still exists at this place. It is Muslim-dominated, so few people visit the temple, but on special occasions, Nag-Panchami people visit the temple. It is a crowded area, and ranges from heavy industry to small-scale industry. It is an industrial and residential area. There are some of the best eating places here.^{[citation needed]} On one side of the area one could find tall skyscrapers and on the other side you will find chawls.

If the Mumbai underworld once had an address, it would have been here. Nagpada was home to some of the most dreaded criminals of the country—and is now home to Dawood Ibrahim's sister Haseena Parkar. Nagpada and its surrounding areas could have been called 'the den of the dons'. Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Aalam Zeb, Ameerzada, Ahmed Kashmiri and Asif Baatla all grew up here or had their mafias operating from here.

Nagpada has on its south side Pakmodia Street, where Dawood Ibrahim was brought up with his 10 other siblings. To its north is Dagdi Chawl, the bastion of gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli and jailed gangster Amar Naik. To its west is Jairaj Gully and Shuklaji Street, where Karim Lala's Pathan gang had a stronghold. To the east is JJ Hospital, which has treated several gangsters and even witnessed shootouts within its premises.

Nagpada was known as a secular place, with a lot of Hindus and Jews living together during the pre-Partition era. Till around the mid-50s, Jews would sit on the kerb and drink kehwa (Middle Eastern tea). After Israel was formed in 1948, many Jews slowly started leaving India.

In fact, Gordon Hall, Haseena Parkar's residence, was reportedly built on an erstwhile Jewish cemetery.

The Hindus of the Nagpada area started their exodus following the communal riots of 1984.

There are two famous restaurants, the Sarvi and Sagar, both opposite Nagpada Polce station, serving Mughlais and Chinese food. The area is also famous for its textile industry especially hand and machine embroidery. There are some reputed name of Karkhandar (owner of hand embroidery) who unknowingly embroidered for the fashion industry of the world. One of the Kharkhandar Shaikh Saghiruddin was a repute of his work.

Two famous basketball courts are located in the area the Mastan court and the Nagpada Neighborhood, which gave India's finest basketball players, including Abbas and Shahid Qureshi. It contains innumerable mosques, temples, churches and synagogues. The famous are the Dawooni Masjid, Nagpada Neighborhood church, Sason Synagogue and Nag Temple.

Important Personalities

* Danish Reyaz a Journalist Danish Reyaz is a Mumbai-based journalist and serving as a correspondent for The Sunday Indian, a weekly news magazine published from Delhi in 14 Indian languages. He had associated with this firm since July 2008. He also writes as a freelancer in 65 daily Urdu newspapers a week. He has more than 10 years' experience in print media as well as printing house. At the beginning in his career he wrote a lot of articles for Rashtriye Sahara Delhi, Pindar Daily Patna, Hayat e Nav (Azamgarh), Sehroza Dawat Delhi, Assalam Monthly (Delhi) etc.

• Maula Abbas Rizvi (Late) {speaker and Khateeb-e-ahl-e-bait}
• Shaikh Shamim Ahmed (Ex-MLA and senior congress leader)
• Dr. Syed Ahmed (Ex-Cabinet Minister Govt. of Maharashtra and MLA)
• Obaid Azam Azmi (Urdu poet and prosodian - ex Special Executive officer Government of Mahrashtra)
• Haseena parker(Dawood Ibrahim's sister)
• Mahesh Pade (renowned interior designer)
• Wasim Mistry (Animator)

Education

• Maharashtra College
• St Antonio High School
• Anjum-I-Islam Saif Tayyabji High School and Jr. College
• Saboo Siddique School and College
• EEE Sassoon High School
• Sir Jacob Sassoon High School
• Richardson & Cruddass