The company of friends you keep shows the manner you have lived your life. If you apply the yardstick to Javed Siddiqi, you will discover he has been more than lucky. He has every right to cherish and celebrate the memory of the wonderful days spent together with a bunch of friends who made his life such a joy. The embers of their memory refused to die and this inner turmoil made him draw the vignettes of his friends and comrades.

Roshandan is a book about some well-written sketches which bring back the era that Javed Siddiqi nostalgically weaves. A renowned screenwriter, dialogue writer and playwright of Urdu and Hindi, he has worked with the legendary Satyajit Ray and also wrote  dialogues for the classic Shatranj Kay Khilari, apart from many other commercial Bollywood films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Raja Hindustani, Pardes etc. He honed his skills while working for IPTA (Indian Peoples Theatre Association) and later on gave the viewers memorable plays like Tumhari Amrita.

While going through Roshandan one encounters many amazing men and women; there is an old Bohemian self-taught Niaz Haider who knows many languages and local dialects; there is the redoubtable Sultana Apa (wife of Ali Sardar Jafri) whom the author owes a lot, and you also get to read about Zahid Shaukat Ali (son of Maulana Shaukat Ali and nephew of Muhammad Ali Johar) etc.

Javed Siddiqi hails from the family of Ali Brothers -- Shaukat Ali, Muhammad Ali Johar -- and he got a chance to work for Khilafat newspaper of Zahid Shaukat Ali. In those days he lived in a small room in the Khilafat House. He tells us all about Zahid Shaukat Ali that is worth-sharing. At times affable and at other times very cruel, Zahid Shaukat Ali was an unpredictable man. Javed Siddiqi had to face the music when he wrote an editorial in Khilafat, vehemently attacking the Saudi dynasty of Arab.

He was instantly dismissed and only then it dawned on him that Zahid Shaukat Ali was living on  alms sent by the Saudi dynasty. Despite all his human errors and foibles Zahid Shaukat Ali emerges out to be a colourful character who believed in enjoying life.

As a struggling journalist Javed Siddiqi was barely making ends meet when his friend took him to Sultana Jafri who used to work in the Soviet Information Office. Thus starts a long association with the down-to-earth lady who helped him many a time. It was also Sultana Jafri who made almost all the arrangements for his wedding at a time when he was abjectly poor.

Javed Siddiqi tells us that when Ali Sardar Jafri died, a Shia cleric supervised his last rites. The cleric wanted to bury him at a Shia graveyard but Sultana Jafri cut him short by saying, "Sardar Jafri will be buried in the Sunni graveyard as all his friends are lying buried there. He will feel lonely in the Shia graveyard."

Javed Siddiqi sneaks deep into the chaotic life of Indian director and film writer Abrar Alvi who later committed suicide. He writes about his troubled relationship with Alvi sahib quite candidly and lets the readers make their own judgement.

There is a relatively short sketch of theatre legend Habib Tanvir. One feels the author should have given more space to him. It seems as if the sketch has been written in haste. Also included is a sketch of newspaper man Ghulam Ahmad Arzoo whom the author worked with in an Urdu daily Hindustan. A simple man, he left a deep influence on Javed Siddiqi for his strong commitment to the profession.

Baba Niaz Haider, the eternal vagabond and bohemian, didn’t appeal to him at first. But he started adoring him as he came closer to Baba. No wonder he has written a very entertaining sketch of Niaz Haider in which we clearly see his many talents. There are ten sketches in this finely produced book and credit goes to the tireless Ajmal Kamal who published the book in Pakistan. He deserves to be feted for presenting topnotch books to the readers.