6 verses · ~1 min
जितना कम सामान रहेगा उतना सफ़र आसान रहेगा
जितनी भारी गठरी होगी उतना तू हैरान रहेगा
उससे मिलना नामुमक़िन है जब तक ख़ुद का ध्यान रहेगा
हाथ मिलें और दिल न मिलें ऐसे में नुक़सान रहेगा
जब तक मन्दिर और मस्जिद हैं मुश्क़िल में इन्सान रहेगा
‘नीरज’ तो कल यहाँ न होगा उसका गीत-विधान रहेगा
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
Market Scene
This work invites us to witness a quiet yet profound moment at the riverbanks, where the boundary between the sacred and the everyday dissolves. Taskar possessed a gentle hand, capturing not just the figures in their graceful drapes, but the very essence of devotion and social gathering. The soft light reflects off the water, illuminating the quiet dignity of the pilgrims who gather here to wash away the dust of the world, reminding us of the timeless rhythm of life along the Indian rivers.
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