Was in a terrible space for most of this week, especially last night... then had a conversation that was grounded and uplifting with my dear friend and mentor Boman Irani... just going through the Facebook feed came across this beautiful, fragrant post by friend Yasir Abbasi

"I don't really understand all the fuss about love being this elusive, precious thing that can be found only by a lucky few. This is one of the biggest myths of all time. Arey, all one needs to do is to blend some playfulness with the youth of flowers, add a dash of alcohol to...

the mix, and voila! Hoga yuñ nasha jo taiyaar, woh pyaar hai. Simple.

A man borrowed his pen-name from a flower and repaid the debt many times over to the entire flower family. No one could quite write about flowers the way Gopaldas 'Neeraj' did.

Whatever the emotion in the song, his ability to weave in the blooms led to some great results And why not? When one has to write dil ki qalam se, it needs to be done phooloñ ke rang se. Rose (Mero saiyyañ gulabiya ka phool), sunflower (Suryamukhi hai mukhda tera),

jasmine (Mann ki gali meiñ mehke jo har dum, aisi juhi ki kali tu). lotus and raat ki raani (Mera saajan phool kamal ka, kali maiñ raat rani ki), tuberose (Saañs teri madir-madir, jaise rajnigandha) - the entire garden came to the party.

Not to be left out, occasionally the odd tree would also show up (Yeh kaun thak ke so raha hai gulmohar ki chhaoñ meiñ).

Sometimes it was done out of plain necessity. After all, girls who go delirious in the company of Dev saab have to be reminded that glass bangles are fragile - phooloñ si naazuk haiñ, dekho dekho, tooteiñ na...

'Kaarwaañ guzar gaya, ghubaar dekhte rahey', Neeraj's famous poem that was later turned into a song in 'Nai Umar Ki Nai Fasal', is replete with the flower imagery:

'Swapna jharey phool se, meet chubhey shool se / Lut gaye singaar sabhi, baagh ke babool se'; 'Kya shabaab tha ki phool-phool pyaar kar utha

Kya suroop tha ki dekh aaina sihar utha'; 'Ek din magar yahaañ aisi kuchh hawa chali / Lut gayi kali-kali ki ghut gayi gali-gali'.

One actor-lyricist combination I wish we had got more of is Shashi Kapoor-Neeraj - they complemented each other so wonderfully. The flower power is obviously present here as well. In 'Sharmilee', apart from the clever 'O neeraj naina, aa zara'

in the title song, there's 'Khilte haiñ gul yahaañ' that includes the striking 'Phooloñ ke seene meiñ thandi-thandi aag hai'. But my favourite flower reference in a Neeraj song is in 'Likhey jo khat tujhey' (Kanyadaan). Not the 'savera jab hua to phool ban gaye' bit, but this one

Koi naghma kahiñ gooñja, kaha dil ne yeh tu aayi,
Kahiñ chatki kali koi, maiñ yeh samjha tu sharmaai

Simple thought, conveyed with elegance - quintessential Neeraj. He could've used the regular 'khili' but instead chooses to go with the lesser-used (and lovely) 'chatki'. The aural connotation that the word carries also helps in nicely tying up the line with the previous one.

And then there's Shashi Kapoor's abundant charm to make it even better.

Thought all of you who would bother to go through this thread should also be enriched in this garden of Neeraj's poetry...