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Happy independence day to all pakistanis!

"I'm home Mama!" Areesha yelled as soon she got into the house. With her purse dangling from her shoulder and a box in her hands, she entered the kitchen and quickly grabbed a knife to cut the cake she had bought to celebrate with her mother. She felt happy after such a long time. As soon as she had gotten the job today she had rushed to the bakery with a Cheshire smile on her face and bought the cake.

She took the cake to her mother's room and peeped in to see that her mother was reading a magazine as she sat on the bed with her back resting on the bed rest and her legs spread in front of her.

"I got the job Ma! " she squealed cheerfully making her mother flinch at her unexpected arrival.

"You what?" Her mother asked her in surprise as she straightened.

"The job Mama, I got it!" she answered joyfully as she sat in front of her mother.

"Really? That's great! I'm so happy for you honey." Her mother's mouth curled into a pleasant smile. The way her mother smiled bought back all those nostalgic memories from when her father was with them. She couldn't help but feel proud that she was the reason behind that smile.

"Ok now let's cut the cake. It's your favorite black forest cake. "

Together she and her mother cut the cake and celebrated. For others this might be a small thing, but for them it was a very big thing. They had a reason to be happy. But little did they understand that you don't need a reason to come and make you happy. You have to find happiness by yourself in the smallest of things.

***

Fawad Ali was going home right now as his younger sister had threatened him to 'get his ass home this instant.'

He drove home in his car after giving some instructions to his receptionist. People thought he was intimidating, but the girl who had been here in the morning for the interview didn't appear to think so. She was ready to bite of his head if he said anything wrong. He couldn't help but be curious about her. He was a good judge of people as he was running his father's business on his own for a few years now. To be a good business man you had to be able to see through other people as you never know when someone could cheat you.

Shrugging all those thoughts about his business from his mind he concentrated on his driving. He enjoyed racing cars a lot. It really helped him get his mind off things. So that's what he did. He took the longer rote to his house through the highway and sped the car home, enjoying the feeling of being in control of the speed.

Upon reaching home he tossed the keys to the security guard to park the car and himself went into the house.

Even before he could enter the house he was attacked by a big hug from his mother.

What's up with everyone today, he thought quietly. That wasn't he welcome he got when got home from work everyday. It looked like they were hiding something.

"Woah there ammi! Salam." He said to his mother who had still engulfed him in a hug.

"Walaikum salam. You left without telling anyone this morning. What's wrong with you? And what did you eat for lunch, today?" His mother started cross questioning him.

"Uh nothing yet," he said truthfully waiting to get the scolding of his life. He hadn't gotten a single spare minute to even have a lunch break.

"Ok that's great!" What? Were his ears working properly? 

"Um Ammi, I said that I didn't have lunch yet." He repeated to make sure that his mother had heard him right.

"And what do you think? Am I deaf? I heard you alright. Just because I am getting old doesn't mean that my ears have stopped working." She replied in mock hurt.

He smiled at his drama queen mother. Even professional actors should take classes with his mother he thought.

"Your response was a bit -" he tried to find the right word. "-surprising. And you haven't grown old at all. To me you are the only beautiful women I've ever come across." He said winking at her which earned him a playful smack on his arm.

"And what about me Bhai? I thought that line was for me. I'm sure you say that to every other girlfriend of yours," he turned around to see his sister frowning at him waving a wooden spoon in his face, clad in a multicolored apron.

He did a double take at her get-up. "Looks like my sister has graced the kitchen with her presence today! What's the occasion? And stop about my girlfriends!" He said with an uncomfortable look towards his mother who just laughed in amusement at his uneasiness.

"See! He even admits that he has girlfriends." His sister, Maya, said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Ever since Maya had seen his friend list on Facebook she had been teasing him about those girls in his friend list.

"Don't make me block you from my Facebook, Maya." He warned his sister playfully.

"Oh my! Ammi look what the world has come to! My one and only brother is going to block me, that too because of a few girlfriends," she said dramatically placing a hand on her heart.

"Nope drama queen not girlfriends. I'm a one woman man." He said winking at her.

"And when will you find that one woman? You are 25 for heaven's sake!" His mother started. "You know Zainab, she really likes you and-" Zainab was his maternal cousin whom his mother was hell-bent with setting him up.

"Not her again Ammi! I don't think of her that way." He groaned.

"What about someone else then? Lots of girls are in line for you. If you want I'll show you a few pictures too," his mother said enthusiastically.

"Mama leave the poor guy alone on his special day," Maya came to his rescue and he smiled at her gratefully.

"Amira? Where my white shirt?" A voice belonging to his father drifted from the bedroom.

"There's my call! Seriously this man can't stay five minutes without yelling for me!" His mother said sighing.

"And you love it!" He said to Ammi and seeing her pink cheeks, he smirked. The love his parents shared was exemplary . Even at this age they couldn't go with our each other. That why he didn't go towards dating or anything. He wanted halal love, just like his parents had. He wanted love that was put in the hearts by Allah, the love after Nikah.

"Ok, Ok found it!" He heard his dad saying as he entered the lounge.

"Salam Abbu!" He greeted his father

"Walaikum Salam son!" His father said thumping him on the back.

"When the thing is right in front of you why do you have to yell for me every other minute?" His mother asked his father with an annoyed expression. His father just smiled sheepishly in return.

"What's up today? First Maya is in the kitchen and then Abbu is home too. Any special occasion?" he asked raising an eyebrow

No one replied to him, but Maya hurried out of the room. After a minute she yelled for everyone to come to the lawn. Ammi covered his eyes with her hands and guided him towards the lawn. Confused at their secretive behavior, he nevertheless complied.

Upon reaching the lawn, everyone started yelling incoherent words and after his mother took her hands off his face he saw a festive atmosphere around him.

"Happy Birthday!" His mother yelled at him.

"What?" It was his birthday today? That was not possible as no one at the office had wished him.

And then from no where he heard a click. He looked around to find his sister in front of him taking his pictures from the camera.

"Your reaction was epic!" She said grinning at the camera.

"This is a joke right? What date is it today anyway?" He asked still bewildered 

"Gosh! What's wrong with you bro? I knew you were forgetful but this is just too much!" His younger sister started scolding him. "Today's head line: The famous business man Fawad Ali is so ignorant. He doesn't even know today's date! The date today is August 11, Thursday, 2016 and it is your birthday today." 

"Oh." He said sheepishly.

"Yeah oh!" Then he realized that his birthday was different in the documents for some official reason and so his employees didn't know that it was his birthday was today.

"Which makes you 26! And now you seriously need to start thinking of marriage before girls don't even spare you a glance!" His mother started with the topic of marriage yet again.

"Don't worry son. I'm old too, but believe me every single woman in town still gawks at me," his father said with a smirk which earned him a smack from his wife.

After that little conversation, he cut his birthday cake with his sister and parents. Even though birthdays were overrated in his opinion and he didn't care about them that much, his sister made sure to bake a cake and some other goodies to make the day memorable.

 After that he had time endure an hour of his parent's embarrassing memories about him. The way he would run away after ringing the bell of his old neighbor Auntie Gulzar and then getting his ears pulled by her or the time when he had worn his mothers lipstick and shawl and had pretended to be Ammi when she was scolding him. Ammi still had that video somewhere hidden from him. The list continued but he couldn't help be happy around his family.

 He loved his family to bits and I could do anything for them. He cherished having a family like this and silently thanked Allah for it.

There are so many things we take for granted and don't recognize their true worth. There are many people who actually crave for things that we take for granted. He thought how rightly someone has said that we should appreciate what we have before it turns into something we had.

Little did he know that somewhere else, someone else was also celebrating because of him but due to a different reason. And he was the reason to their smiles.

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