It was a cool Ramazan morning. Small, cold raindrops had been falling since Fajr, but now they had stopped, and Laila could see the sun peeking through the clouds and waving down at her. She waited for a moment, and then there it was, a radiant yellow ray resting on the windowsill.

She rushed towards her father. “Baba, baba, the sun is out! Shall we go now, please?” she requested, jumping in excitement.

Mr Kamal stood up from the sofa and glanced through the window. The grass in the garden was still damp, but the rain had stopped.

“Okay, let’s go,” he said, and off they went to the market.

Laila was nine years old and today she had planned to invite her friends for iftar at her house. She had made a list of dishes which, with the help of her mother, she was going to make for the party.

“Mama, can we make cupcakes too?” inquired Laila while eyeing her list.

“Yes, we can,” replied her mother.

There were certain ingredients she required for her secret recipe, and no, this recipe was not for the table that evening, it was for Eid. Since Eid was approaching, all of her friends had decided to give each other gift boxes. After three hours of decision-making, Laila returned home with two big bags of the gifts she had bought.

It took her another two hours to wrap them up. She had bought colourful bangles, along with henna cones and small earrings. For the Eid cards, she made them by hand, she was a good artist. On every card, she wrote a poem.

It was 5pm when Laila was standing in the kitchen with her mother. The juice was ready, and so was the pasta.

She was mixing the cupcake batter with all her strength.

“I think it’s done, Laila. Let me pour this into the moulds,” her mother said and took the bowl, poured the mixture carefully and placed it inside the oven.

Then she asked Laila to fetch some lemons from Mrs Salman, their next-door neighbour. She was a nice old lady and would give the children candies whenever someone went to her house, and in summers she would arrange a party for all the mothers and girls of the neighbourhood.

As she was returning from Mrs Salman’s house, she spotted Maida standing outside her house. Maida was her age. They were not friends, but they knew they were neighbours because Maida had recently moved into the neighbourhood. Suddenly, Laila felt the urge to talk to her.

“Hello, you are Maida, right?” asked Laila.

“Yeah,” Maida replied with a slight smile.

“I am Laila. I have arranged an iftar party for my school friends. I was wondering if you could also join us?”

“Oh, that’s so nice of you, Laila. Thank you. Yes, I would love to come and meet you and your friends,” replied Maida. She was smiling now and probably really happy that she would have friends in the new neighbourhood.

After 10 minutes, Maida got ready and went off to the party with Laila. The iftar party was pure fun. Laila gave Maida one of the Eid giveaway boxes.

It was the most fun iftar party in both Laila’s and Maida’s lives, because that day they not only broke their fast together but also became the best neighbourhood friends.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 28th, 2026