ALVIDA NEERAJ JI. A HUGE VACCUM IN THE LITERARY AND POETIC WORLD!

The nation has today lost a renowned literateur, eminent and towering poet Gopal Das Neeraj who was honoured with coveted and most prestigious awards of the country viz. Padmabhushan and Padmashree and who carried behind him a vast fan following amongst the educated and the intellectual classes of the nation.

Neeraj breathed his last today at the AIIMS, New Delhi at 7.30 PM. He was addmitted to AIIMS on Wednesday evening after his condition deteriorated in a private hospital in Agra called Lotus Hospital.

He was suffering from the bacterial and fungal infection revealed his medical reports.

A highly reverred and extremely popular poet of the country who’d also scripted songs for several Bollywood movies Gopal Das Neeraj was born on 4th January 1925 in Agra, Uttar Pradesh during the British rule.

Hailing primarily from village Purawali in Ettawa his surname was Saxena. His father Brij Kishore Saxena passed away when Neeraj was just 6 years old.

Having been brought up in extreme poverty Gopal Das Neeraj passed his high school securing a good first division and later on served as a typist in a local court followed by another job in a shop at a picture hall and finally arrived at Delhi to serve in a municipal office as a typist.

After leaving the job here, he again served as a clerk in Kanpur and thereafter as typist at the office of Balkatt brothers.

In 1953 he completed his post graduation in Hindi securing a good first division. He thereafter served as a Hindi lecturer in Meerut college from where he was reprimanded and shunted out for regularly missing classes and having been involved in a romance with a girl.

Thereafter Neeraj shifted to Aligarh on permanent basis and got a job of a Hindi lecturer in Dharm Samaj college. He started his career as a poet from Aligarh where he used to participate in various Kavi Sammelans and Mushaaiyraas.

Neeraj thereafter became quite famous and was being continuously invited in prestigious poet conferences at an all India level inaugurated by distinguished political personalities and renowned dignitories.

His name and fame as a renowned poet spread nationally. He was invited by film producers and directors from Mumbai to write lyrics for various new films.

Neeraj could’nt afford to miss this golden opportunity and he shifted to Mumbai. He scripted songs for several popular films like Mera Naam Joker, Prem Pujari, Sharmeeli etc which were super duper hits.

As a result in 2017 he was felicitated with prestigious Padma Bhushan and many other coveted awards. However, Neeraj could’nt confine himself more in the Bollywood industry and came back to Aligarh participating thereafter in various national and international poetry conferences very often.

He was addicted to whisky and smoking. At the age of 88 Gopal Das Neeraj finally baded Good Bye to this world on 19th July 2018 creating a massive and huge vaccum in the literary and poetic world. ALVIDA NIRAJJI.