On the occasion of the sixth death anniversary of poet, lyricist, and writer Gopal Das ‘Neeraj’, a poetry recital program was organized at the Press Club in Delhi. During this event, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar was honored with the ‘Mahakavi Neeraj Samman-2024’. Upendra Rai, the trustee of the Gopal Das Neeraj Foundation Trust and Chairman of Bharat Express, honored Javed Akhtar with the ‘Mahakavi Neeraj Samman-2024’.
After receiving the award in ‘Kavyanjali’, Javed Akhtar thanked the audience and said, “I am very grateful to all of you, that I got so much respect and honour here. I was awarded here. There is a strange story related to my life. What was my relationship with Mahakavi Gopaldas Neeraj, what was not… It is very difficult to answer these two questions. He is woven into my life. When I was 10-11 years old… I am talking about 1952. I was in Aligarh at that time. There was a girls college there. Since I was young then, I could go to the hostel of the girls college.”
Fluency in both Urdu and Hindi is a pathway to success in the film industry. Gopal Das ‘Neeraj’, a great poet, exemplified this mastery, blending both languages seamlessly. He elevated the craft of Bollywood lyricism, proving that no job is menial—only people can be seen as such. Neeraj ji’s contribution dignified the art of writing film lyrics, Akhtar added.
‘Kavi Sammelans used to be held in Aligarh, Gopal ji used to dominate’
He said, “When Kavi Sammelans used to be held in Aligarh, Mahakavi Gopaldas Neeraj used to be the superstar there. You must have heard his lines somewhere that ‘The caravan has passed…’ Years ago, I had heard all this from his mouth in my childhood. After that, when I grew up a bit, I came to Bhopal. Neerajji had a huge fan following in Bhopal too. He had a family. Whenever Neerajji used to come, he used to stay there. When I was studying in college, I used to meet him even then. Then when I came to Mumbai, Neerajji also came to Mumbai.”
‘One of the people whose feet I touched was Neerajji’
Javed said, “I told Neerajji that Dada, I don’t go to kavi sammelans because I am not that capable. However, whenever I used to go to sammelans, I used to meet him. He never forgot me. There have been only 2-3 people in my life whose feet I touch. One of them was Neerajji. Once when I came to Delhi, I met him here too. Delhi and Aligarh are 88 miles apart, I took a car and went there without any reason. Went straight to his house. Spent the afternoon there, had lunch with him there. Got photos clicked as well. After that, I came back from there in the evening. Now, there was no reason why I went there. But it came to my heart and then I went to his house to meet him.”
