Neeraj—Poet of varying moods, colours

While commemorating a doyen of poetry and lyricism of repute Gopaldas Saxena alias NEERAJ—a recipient of Padam Bhushan on the august occasion of his birth centenary, a celebrated English romantic poet John Keats here quite naturally haunts who created this evergreen line, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever."

- PROF PK SHARMA

So is indeed fantastically true in the letter and spirit of Neeraj an iconic poet of two centuries and his poetic creations too.

The fourth day of January 1925 saw the sun of creativity dawning in the village Puravali of District Etawah in Uttar Pradesh.

A man who saw life in all its numerous hues from close quarters right from his early childhood striving and struggling consistently, facing its ups and downs with grit, courage and determination did succeed in becoming a poet of name and fame winning kudos in all the four directions of the globe.

Beautifully and amusingly his poetry in both the classical and romantic schools of English poetry thought aims at amusing as well as manifesting meaningful and wonderful contours of realism, love, humanity, deep philosophy, optimism, romanticism, courage, melody and patriotism reflecting myriads of variety of moods, images, symbols and impressions of life painted in their natural colours through fabulous and fanciful word pictures. His poetry is thus a splendid bouquet of poems blended together to recreate poetry lovers and touch the very cores of their heads and hearts as well.

Influenced deeply by a renowned poet and scholar of international fame Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Neeraj learning the subtleties and fine traits of poetry from his mentor excelled making impossible look really possible impressing greats like the evergreen matinee idol Dev Anand, the greatest showman of Indian Cinema—Raj Kapoor, the great music composers like Sachin Dev Burman and Shankar Jaikishan.