Spreading cheer, Kalam in Kashmir

The visit also had some light moments, which he shared with the Kashmiri children.

During his visit to Uri, one five-year girl asked the President, ''Jab hamara naya ghar ban jayega...kya aap hamare ghar aayenge? (Will you come to our house when we reconstruct it?) Amidst peels of laughter, he answered, ''I will definitely come. Call me and I will be very happy to visit. Our governor and chief minister can build the house quickly.''

The chief minister told the President that his government intended to send 300 orphaned children outside the state for higher studies and that it was the state's responsibility to give them every opportunity.

The children asked him a lot of questions like, "What are your plans after you stop being President of India?" The President said he intended to go back to teaching. He also had some counter questions for the children. "What are your dreams?" he asked. "What do you want to become in future?"

At Urusa, the last village near the Line of Control, he asked the children to join him in singing his favourite poem 'Dream, dream.' The village has been adopted by the Air Force, which has constructed a hospital there.

Image: President Kalam distributing sweets to inmates of the Muskan orphanage in Srinagar.

Photograph: UNI

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