Every Smile has its own Story, Every Smile is worth a Thousand and Imagine what it would feel like with 1000 Smiles…
And that’s what we experienced at the “1000 Smiles” Initiative by SAKAL Group in coordination with P@P.One fine day Bhushan Mate a good friend of mine called up me and asked me to coordinate for a Project “1000 Smiles” Initiated by Sakal & partnered with Photographer@Pune, popularly known as P@P.
The Idea was to Click 1000 Smiling faces all over from Pune. 30 Photographers, 15 Locations, 1000 Smile. What a concept it was to be.. The day was to be 24th Oct 2010 for capturing the entire Pune Smiling.
These “1000 Smiles” captured were to be exhibited at Ganesh Kala Krida Mandir on 5th, 6th & 7th Nov 2010 as a Diwali bonanza for all the Punekars as a festival Gift. We had to capture smiles from all walks of life, from every part of the society, from all age groups, all genders.
At the first go I was not very sure and had lots of questions running through my mind. How this will all go about? Will this work out? What would be the response from all my Group members? How People will react to this?
But all these questions blurred away when I saw a huge response from my fellow members of P@P. In a span of just two days we had almost 40 odd members geared up for this shoot. We had a meeting with Mr.Milind Wadekar from SAKAL Group, who initiated this activity. He gave us an Insight of what was expected out of this shoot, everybody was quite excited about this entire concept as this was an All Win situation for all of us.
15 locations were finalized and we divided all the members in 15 different groups covering these locations.
The D day..
Finally the D-Day was ON, all the members geared up early in the morning and headed to their assigned locations to capture those Sweet Smiles that were laying somewhere beneath the burden of daily bread & butter and the struggle of life..
I headed towards the crowded and one of the oldest parts of the City, The Mandai Area of Pune where I was sure I would have got 1000 smiles all at one place itself. It was great having fellow photographer friends to company me in the crowded area.
It was a great felling to see people from different cultures, religions, age groups, genders smiling all the way for us and giving candid shots. It was also great fun and learning while asking people randomly to give a smile in the early morning hours and Punekars too lived up to the expectations.
There were plenty of Questions asked by people. What is this for? Why are you clicking me? I can’t Smile? Where will these photos published? And so on..
We all answered them with the same enthusiasm. At times we had to explain them in details & at times a small joke cracked was good enough to make them Smile.
Every smile was worth a capture as each Smile had its own story. A story of Hard Work, A story of a Hectic Life, a story of being Human, a story of survival. Each Story was Unique in its own.
I also encountered with some funny & Hilarious situations and quotes while capturing some of these smiles.
An Old lady saying”Baba, Maza photo kadhun kai karnar hayes, tiakde ti porgi bagh, chaan disate, ticha photu kaad.” which means ” Why are you clicking my smile, look at that beautiful girl, go click her smile”.
Another vegetable vendor saying to his fellow vendor “Mahatare, Jara haas ki, tu gelyavar haach photu laavu apan bhinitvar” means “ Old Lady, Give a good smile, we will hang this Photo on wall after you.” People could not stop laughing after this incident and it gave me an opportunity to click many more smiles.
People were generous enough to offer Snacks, Tea and some even asked to have Banana’s & Fruits. Can you Imagine somebody asking me’ “Thode Kande, Batate pan gheun java.”
I was getting continues calls from all over Pune from different P@P members shooting at different locations sharing their experiences.
It was a fun filled 12 hours outing for all the members with such wonderful experiences all over Pune. Everybody had enjoyed it a lot and will cherish & treasure these memories forever.
Such was the response from the P@P members as well as all the Puneties that We were supposed to click “1000 Smiles” but we ended up clicking a whooping number of almost more than “2000 Smiles”. Even SAKAL group was not expecting such a huge response. This showed how we as P@P group members are committed and motivated about Our Passion, Our Photography.
The Preludes of the Exhibition started almost a week before by SAKAL putting the “1000 Smiles” captured randomly in their different News paper supplements and media. Sakal did a fantastic job to promote this event. It created an element of excitement among all of us as well as the Punekars to see themselves smiling.
The Fitting Finale..
Finally the day occurred & it was the time to see these Smiles captured on the Exhibition Wall. It was great to see such huge exposure to our work and was a real excitement. These beautifully captured smiles were equally well exhibited. Punekars were happy to see these smiling faces all around which added an Icing on the cake in the Diwali feast. The reactions of people were amazing, we could make out by the expressions on the faces of the visitors who were smiling all the way looking at the captured Smiles.
What more can a Photographer ask when his work is recognized in such a huge way by such a large audience and when he gets such a huge exposure. This was a Perfect Platform for all of us who participated in this Event.
Personally for Me , It was a great and wonderful achievement because this was the first time any of My work was exhibited & secondly My Family & Friends too visited the exhibition & appreciated My work. That was a wonderful gesture.
It could not have got Bigger & Better than this. The celebrations ended up with a dazzling, breathtaking Fire Show on Saturday evening at Deccan organized By SAKAL. This was as if it was planned to celebrate our achievements. It was wonderful to meet all the Photographer Friends again and exchange sweets and wishes with each other.
I will always cherish this Diwali as one of the best as it not only gave me lot of happiness, but also it gave me an opportunity to bring back smiles on the faces of all the Punekars and give the city back a bit of its share of Happiness.
Thanks Pune, You have been a wonderful place to be and have given me one more reason to love you… To be with you…..
Happy Diwali!!!!!
