5 verses · ~2 min
आँसू जब सम्मानित होंगे, मुझको याद किया जाएगा जहाँ प्रेम का चर्चा होगा, मेरा नाम लिया जाएगा
मान-पत्र मैं नहीं लिख सका, राजभवन के सम्मानों का मैं तो आशिक़ रहा जन्म से, सुंदरता के दीवानों का लेकिन था मालूम नहीं ये, केवल इस ग़लती के कारण सारी उम्र भटकने वाला, मुझको शाप दिया जाएगा
खिलने को तैयार नहीं थी, तुलसी भी जिनके आँगन में मैंने भर-भर दिए सितारे, उनके मटमैले दामन में पीड़ा के संग रास रचाया, आँख भरी तो झूम के गाया जैसे मैं जी लिया किसी से, क्या इस तरह जिया जाएगा
काजल और कटाक्षों पर तो, रीझ रही थी दुनिया सारी मैंने किंतु बरसने वाली, आँखों की आरती उतारी रंग उड़ गए सब सतरंगी, तार-तार हर साँस हो गई फटा हुआ यह कुर्ता अब तो, ज़्यादा नहीं सिया जाएगा
जब भी कोई सपना टूटा, मेरी आँख वहाँ बरसी है तड़पा हूँ मैं जब भी कोई, मछली पानी को तरसी है गीत दर्द का पहला बेटा, दुख है उसका खेल-खिलौना कविता तब मीरा होगी जब, हँसकर ज़हर पिया जाएगा
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
Draupadi Vastraharan
This profound masterpiece immortalizes one of the most agonizing and spiritually transcendent moments in the Mahabharata, where Queen Draupadi stands alone in the royal court, stripped of her dignity by the wicked Duhshasana. Mahadev Vishvanath Dhurandhar captures the sheer psychological intensity of the assembly, rendering the helplessness ofมาช the elders, the malicious triumph of the Kauravas, and most importantly, the divine intervention of Lord Krishna. As the sheer fabric endlessly multiplies in a miracle of cosmic grace, Draupadi raises her hands in absolute surrender and devotion, embodying the ultimate triumph of divine righteousness over human cruelty.
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