The death of veteran lyricist Anand Bakshi is an inexplicable loss to Bollywood, is evident from the fact that he has penned the words for over 4,000 songs in a career spanning 45 years.

Born in Rawalpindi in the 1920s, Bakshi served in the Army for some three years before he finally landed in Bombay with aspirations to become a writer.

Anand Bakshi, who carved a niche for himself in the Guiness Book of World Records by writing over 4000 lyrics, was an ex-soldier. The grit and determination which he acquired as a man in uniform, held him in good stead when it came to finding a place in the film world. With all his talent, he would not, perhaps, have been able to make it, but for these qualities. In the course of his struggle to get a break in the film industry, after leaving the Army in 1958, he was asked by the celebrated music director Roshan to see him. Unfortunately, that night, there was a big gale leading to the disruption of train and bus services. Soon it started pouring heavily. It looked impossible to reach Santacruz from Borivali where he lived. But during his military training he had learnt - "Never say die". So he put his lyrics in a plastic bag under his shirt and set off from Borivali at 2 am to reach Santacruz six hours later. Roshan was aghast to see him completely drenched and shivering with cold. His shocked remark was, "Are you a man or a ghost?"Bakshi’s reply was that he was merely a man, and not a ghost, and that it might not be necessary for Roshan but it was very much necessary for Bakshi to come. What he had then said standing at the door-step of Mr Roshan was justified when a number of his lyrics were selected by the composer. Bakshi said many a time proudly that whatever heights he achieved was because of the military training and discipline. Gradually Bakshi acquired name and fame in Bollywood because of his lyrics which were liked by the masses.

Such was the power and force of Bakshi’s talent that most of the filmmakers were eager to include him in their projects. From Mahesh Bhatt who used him in practically every project, from ‘Naam’ onwards, to Monmohan Desai’s greatest hits, to Raj Kapoor’s ‘Bobby’ where his "Hum tum ek kamre mein bund ho" enthralled an entire generation, to Om Prakash’s hits. From Subhash Ghai who was an avid Anand Bakshi fan to Yash Chopra who used his talent in every movie from ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’ to ‘Dil to Pagal Hai’ to Shakti Samanta for whose films the lyricist Bakshi was an integral component - Bakshi defined the thoughts of filmmakers accurately and without fuss.

He lived simply and wrote simple poetry. He conversed from his heart. "Whenever we met, he would greet me with ‘Wah ji wah", said Lata Mangeshker.

Subhash Ghai, to whom Anand Bakshi was like an elder brother, said "He was a great lyricist but also a nice and humble human being. He never had any greed for money and that is why even after 45 years of working in the film industry, he lived in a small house. He was like a family member to me. We shared a special bond with each other. He played a very vital role in making my career as a director."

A large number of film industry and music personalities attended the funeral of Anand Bakshi at the Santa Cruz crematorium on March 31, last. Among the first to arrive were actor Randhir Kapoor, singer Shabbir Kumar and radio personality Ameen Sayani, music director Shravan and Ismail Darbar. Due to sudden demise of Anand Bakshi, a glorious chapter has come to an end in the history of Hindi film music.