Veteran film journalist Ali Peter John released two of his books in the presence of a distinguished gathering on the eve of his birthday this week. The first book was a Hindi translation of his autobiography 'Life - Bits and Pieces' in both English and Hindi language. The Hindi language was titled 'Zindagi Tukdo Mein'. It was released by the well known lyricist Sameer, who is now gearing up to go into the Guinness Book of World Records for his numerous songs. The second one was Ali's new book in English titled 'ALI(VE) Only For You' and was jointly released by Amit Khanna of Big Pictures, Reliance Entertainment Group and Shyam Shroff of Shringar Films and Fame Adlabs.

Among those who were present to wish him were directors Abbas Mustan, veteran actor and leader Ram Mohan, writer Vinay Sinha, theatre personalities Nadira Zaheer Babbar and her son Arya Babbar, Deepti Naval, publicity designer Atmanand, Vindoo Dara Singh, producers Ratan Aulakh and Kulbhushan Gupta, Gajendra Chauhan and his choreographer wife Habiba Rehman, Vikram Khakhar and his Wize Mindz Team, Anchal Dwivedi, Aroon Bakshi, Anant Mahadevan, Dale Bhagwagar and model and actress Ferena Wezeir.

Almost all the speakers were unanimous in talking about the contribution made by Ali in the field of film journalism and were surprised by his foray into creative writing which had nothing to do with films. Both the books are based on Ali's own personal experiences. The first is the story of his life till now and the second, an unusual story of his first love which runs through the entire book.

All the speakers talked about the honesty and sincerity in Ali's writings down the years. Later, Ali narrated how he had travelled through trials and turmoil to reach the stage of life he has. His birthday was also celebrated on the occasion with a large cake specially sent by the legendary Dev Anand.

The function was compeered by music historian Manohar Iyer, a close friend of Ali, who runs a music group called 'Keep Alive', while MLA Ashok Jadhav presided over it.