4 verses · ~1 min
अब बुलाऊँ भी तुम्हें तो तुम न आना! टूट जाए शीघ्र जिससे आस मेरी छूट जाए शीघ्र जिससे साँस मेरी, इसलिए यदि तुम कभी आओ इधर तो द्वार तक आकर हमारे लौट जाना! अब बुलाऊँ भी तुम्हें...!!
देख लूं मैं भी कि तुम कितने निठुर हो, किस कदर इन आँसुओं से बेखबर हो, इसलिए जब सामने आकर तुम्हारे मैं बहाऊँ अश्रु तो तुम मुस्कुराना। अब बुलाऊँ भी तुम्हें...!!
जान लूं मैं भी कि तुम कैसे शिकारी, चोट कैसी तीर की होती तुम्हारी, इसलिए घायल हृदय लेकर खड़ा हूँ लो लगाओ साधकर अपना निशाना! अब बुलाऊँ भी तुम्हें...!!
एक भी अरमान रह जाए न मन में, औ, न बचे एक भी आँसू नयन में, इसलिए जब मैं मरूं तब तुम घृणा से एक ठोकर लाश में मेरी लगाना! अब बुलाऊँ भी तुम्हें...!!
इति
The Poet
गोपालदास "नीरज
Gopaldas 'Neeraj'
1925 · 2018
If Hindi poetry possessed a single voice that could dissolve the boundary between the written word and the sung breath, that voice belonged to Gopaldas Neeraj. He moved with rare and uncanny fluency between the high courts of literary poetry and the golden studios of Hindi cinema. Writing film lyrics in the 1960s and 1970s, he achieved something almost impossible by ensuring his songs carried genuine philosophical weight while remaining luminous with melody. His songs for films like Mera Naam Joker and Nai Umar Ki Nai Fasal did not condescend to their popular medium, but rather elevated it entirely. Neeraj understood with the instinct of a true artist that the deepest questions of human existence, the nature of time, the certainty of loss, and the strange beauty of impermanence are not the exclusive property of the academy. They belong to the weeping widow, the dreaming young man, and the farmer watching rain fall on dry earth. Born in Puravali in 1925, he lived until 2018. Through nine full decades, he carried the gift of making the philosophical feel personal and the personal feel universal. He was that rarest of things, a poet whom both the scholar and the ordinary listener claimed as their own.
Paired Painting
Jatayu Vadham
This profound and emotionally charged chromolithograph immortalizes a heart wrenching episode from the epic Ramayana. The noble demigod vulture, Jatayu, valiantly attempts to rescue Sita from the clutches of the demon king Ravana, sacrificing his physical body in an act of supreme devotion and righteousness. Raja Ravi Varma masterfully captures the instant of tragic violence as Ravana severs the great bird's wing with his gleaming sword. Sita stands beside them, overwhelmed by grief and despair, her face buried in her hands. Through this work, the artist bridges classical Indian narrative with Western academic realism, allowing viewers to viscerally feel the sorrow and drama of the epic encounter.
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