Kashmir

#WorldSmilesDay: Children of Kashmir

World Smile Day is celebrated on the first Friday in the month of October every year. The idea of World Smile Day was coined and initiated by Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts. Harvey Ball is known to have created the Smiley Face in 1963. The World’s first World Smile Day was held in the year 1999 and has been held annually since.

At Tappar, Pattan, around 30 kilometres from the heart of Srinagar, is a government school laden with bursts of laughing children. The 30 minute lunch break sees a cloud of dust and smiles in the school playground, surrounded by charred walls, from the ’16 uprising. 

One steps into the small field and spots children in their respective habitats, some stuffing their mouths with home-prepared lunches, some kicking the dust and a makeshift football. 

A flashing camera and a smile on your face makes you the epicenter of a hundred giggling voices.

Here are a few pictures from a day, for the day: 

The lunch break hasn’t started yet and the last few minutes are a pain. There is a man with a camera in the field and if you stay still for long enough, smiling, a picture is imminent. He is turning. Wow, he just scoped right past us. A smile wasted…

There, the camera again. Smile.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

FPK Image/ Tabish Rafiq Mir.

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