Background
He was born in the village of Puravali near Mahewa of Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, India on 4 January 1924.
He was born in the village of Puravali near Mahewa of Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, India on 4 January 1924.
He is also a famous poet of english Kavi Sammelan. He wrote under the pen name "Neeraj". His style is considered easy to understand, but has also been compared with high quality Hindi literature.
He was awarded Padma Shri in 1991 and Padma Bhushan in 2007.
Besides writing, he earned his living teaching in a college and was a Professor of Hindi Literature in Dharma Samaj College, Aligarh. Several of his poems and songs have been used in Hindi movies and are considered famous.
In the television interview, Gopaldas Neeraj called himself an unlucky poet which led to his stopping himself from writing film songs and confining himself to just writing and getting his poems published. The reason for this mentioned by him was that at least two or three prominent Music Directors of the Hindi Film Industry for whom he wrote very successful and popular songs, had expired.
He mentioned the death of Jaikishan of the Music Duo Shankar-Jaikishan as well as of South.D.Burman or Sachin Development Burman, for both of whom he had written highly popular film songs.
The deaths of these Music Directors when they as well as Gopaldas Neeraj were at the peak of their popularity, left him very depressed and he made a decision to quit the film industry. As of 2012, Neeraj was the chancellor of Mangalayatan University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. Gopaldas Neeraj"s Works (Poems):
1.
PRAN GEET 2.
DARA DIYA Helicopter Association International 3. SANGHARSH 4. BADAR BARAS GAYO 5. AASAVARI 6. NEERAJ KI PATI 7.
NEERAJ KI GEETIKAYEN 8.
Doctor of Osteopathy GEET 9. NADI KINARE 10. MUKTKI 11. GEET AGEET 12.
NEERAJ KI RACHNAVALI 13. ANTARDWANI.