Birthday special: Nothing is achieved from one sided love, I wish the Anjan knew this truth - Ali Peter John

It took very little time for him to make his name, but Lalji Pandey which was his real name was always a very shy young man and that was the only reason why he took Anjaan as his pen name. It was with this name that he became very popular in all the major poet sammelans and mushairas across North India. However, he touched new heights of popularity when he wrote a parody of Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachchan's 'Madhushala' and called it Madhubala. It was popular as 'Madhushala'.

But, Anjaan, who was later married, realized that he could not run his household through poetry alone and he had to earn more money for the family and he took the first train to his dream city, Mumbai.

He had many other friends who were already in Mumbai city who told him that it would not be easy when some well-known Urdu poets and Hindi poets had already established themselves in the film, but Anjaan refused to give up. Had decided.

For the next twenty-two years, he did not find any work and lived as a paying guest and earned his living by giving tuition in Hindi to the sons and daughters of rich people at places like Marine Drive. The money was enough for some good food and evening drinks and the occasional Hindi movie.

While Anjaan was living such a vagabond life he had fallen madly in love with the image of the actress, Nanda, whom he had seen in almost all her films. He was so enchanted and fascinated by her that he even wrote a poem about her, the first two lines of which were, “Wherever I look, I see your picture, I see my destiny in your picture.” He wrote the entire poem and He continued with his struggle, but his love for Nanda remained with him always.

His fortunes changed with the rise of Amitabh Bachchan and there came a time when he was writing songs for almost all the big films of Amitabh and he was soon a big, popular and rich songwriter and then he turned to his good luck i.e. his son. He joined Sameer with himself, whom he had earlier separated because he did not want him to struggle like him, and later he also became one of the most successful songwriters.

He was writing songs for 'Mahavan' in which Amitabh had a triple role. Director S. Ramanathan, who played a very important role in shaping Amitabh's career, wanted the film to have a song picturized on Amitabh and his wife Waheeda Rehman.

Amitabh had heard about the poem that Anjaan had written for Nanda and Anjaan did not want to use it for commercial purposes. However Amitabh requested Anjaan to give him the poem and do him a favor and Anjaan could not say no to Amitabh who believed that he had changed his life.

Anjaan was thrilled when his poem was recorded in the voice of Amitabh himself.

It was the premiere of 'Mahan' at Minerva Theater in Mumbai and the entire industry was present there. A stranger was seen sitting in great tension on the seat next to me. It was time for Amitabh to sing the song to Waheed on the black landline telephone and only God knows what happened, before Amitabh could start 'Jidhar Dekhu', the entire theater started hooting and singing along and cheering for Amitabh . And Anjan kept his head on my shoulder and cried like a child. That night, Anjaan, who was never a drunk, had been drinking all night and was unable to speak, but he said at once, “If I had known this, my love was going to end this way. Had it been so, I would never have loved.”

I don't know why, but Anjan, who was in his seventies, was never the same man again. He fell ill with an ear disease that reached his brain and he fell into a coma, from which he never recovered. Sameer brought out a book 'Ganga Kinare Ka Chhora' of his personal collection of poems. And I, who was very close to the poet, I used to love calling Anjaan ji and having two pegs of brandy with him in the evening was always considered as one of my achievements with my friends and I was a friend of such a person. Known as the one who loved being ignorant.