When dreams turn into wilted flowers

Neeraj recites "Karwan Guzar Gaya" #gopaldasneeraj

'Kavi' GopalDas Neeraj passed has passed away in 2018. One of the few people who did not get enamoured with glitter of Bombay film industry, he spent later life in Aligarh doing what he loved..write poems.

One of his very popular songs "Kaarwaan Guzar Gaya" (The Caravan has Departed) depicts the moments of disillusionment in life.

Like his other work , in simpler yet in very meanigful way, this poem tells us about the disillusionment... when what we dream for turns into something else.

This song was included in a film called "Nayi Umr ki Nayi Fasal". In the film, the protagonist, a college student is misguided by an agency for personal motives and when he realizes that - it is too late. The words "gubaar dekhte rahe" which means "I am just watching the cloud of dust" (as caravan has already passed) in apt way describe how the disillusioned the protagonist would feel.

Here is a recitation of the poem in "tarannum" by Neeraj himself:

Doesn't this kind of situation happen many times in political movements and also in social movements? Many a time if we look closely and ask people who started off with well intention, started off with a mission - see themselves after years that what their movement was initially meant to be has become a tool for personal gains by selected few and the movement has lost its purpose.

Or, after a much media brouhaha, people forget all in short while and looking back it looks maybe just a cloud of fake/propaganda news.