The toothless smile (1931)

The toothless smile (1931)
This photograph was taken on the SS Rajputana in 1931 when Gandhi was going to England to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London (from September 7, 1931 to December 1, 1931). The baby in the image is six-month-old Aziz Fatima, the daughter of Shuaib and Gulnar Qureshi. Shuaib Qureshi was an associate and friend of Gandhi since he became editor of Gandhi’s newspaper New Era in 1917. Gulnar was the youngest daughter of Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar, one of the leaders of the freedom movement against the British, and had accompanied her father to the First Round Table Conference (November 12, 1930 to January 19, 1931) when she was pregnant with Aziz Fatima. Gandhi was in a grim mood but photographers covering the event soon found a way to make him smile.The photographers took this picture when Gandhi was playing with Aziz Fatima, and it was captioned: “The Toothless Smile.”

Aziz Fatima and her family moved to Karachi in 1948. She married the famous Dr Z. K. Kazi, who founded the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre. They had four children: Faiza, Durriya, Muna and Salahuddin. The baby with the toothless grin celebrated her 86th birthday this year. n