Written and Illustrated by Daima
Hussain
Thunk, thunk, went the sound of
Daniyal’s mini garden shovel as he
dug up a spot in the middle of his
mother’s rose garden; for his straw-
berry plant. He had a bunch of
squishy, bright red strawberries in
the front pocket of his starched
white uniform shirt.
“Daniyal, Daniyal, where are you?”
He heard his mother’s voice, and he
hurriedly dumped all the strawber-
ries out of his pocket and into the
hole, and wiping his hands on his
grey school pants he quickly stood.
“Oh, Allah, Daniyal! What have you been doing?! Look at the state of you!” His mother screeched from behind him. “I was planting, ammi! I learned
about agri-cal-toor, in science class!” explained Daniyal seriously to his mother. “Agriculture? Oh, what I am to do with you!” sighed his mother, taking him inside and helping him to wash up.
That evening, while standing outside the living room, he overheard his parents discussing a party they were to hold the next week for their anniver-
sary. “We should keep it small, I think, just a few friends and family members, we need to think of the expense.” His father muttered with a frown.
“Oh, yes, you’re quite right dear; though I do wish we were well off enough to have a thousand guests sometimes, I do think we needs be sensible.” His
mother agreed.
“A thousand! You’re just like Daniyal sometimes honey, letting your imagination run off with you.” His father chortled.
Although his parents soon went up to bed, after tucking him in. Daniyal lay awake that night, thinking about what his mother said. A thousand guests, he thought. I’ll make ammi’s wish come true, Daniyal decided.
Early the next morning he hopped out of bed and packed a water bottle, two hundred rupees, and some of his toys. He set out to find a way to have a party for a thousand people. Food was his first
thought, no party is complete without food,
so he set out to a nearby farm, and when he arrived he found farmer Javed, their neighbor, fretting about a water shortage on his farm. He explained the situation to the farmer and asked his help in getting the food for the party. “Dear lad, I would love to help ya, but I’m stuck here, the pipes at me farm are not working, and the fields need watering.” The farmer said. Daniyal thought about it and then he remembered his friend Saad, whose
dad was a plumber. He called him and asked for his help. Saad and Saad’s dad helped them and they all worked together to fix the pipes. Now, the farmer agreed to give him the ingredients for the food for the party and Daniyal explained his plan to Saad’s dad, who introduced him to a chef, who would cook the food.
The chef was need in of help to clean his huge kitchen, and so they called Daniyals’s class fellows, who all worked together to do that.
Next, the chef said they needed a place to
hold the party, so he offered to call his friend, who had a shadi hall, to host it. When they went to the hall, they discovered that the shadi hall manager was upset, because a cat had destroyed his decorations overnight and he needed to fix them. They all helped him and then he agreed to host the party.
At the end, Daniyal had more than a hundred people working with him to set up the party, including all his class fellows and their parents. He invited them and all their families to the party and then they all went to bring his parents. It was a huge
success and everyone loved it. Everyone was praising Daniyal’s ideas and helpfulness.
The End.
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