At a song's

Umair was waiting for his parents' decision to let him go to his friend Wiki's birthday party. His parents were going to a wedding of a cousin, a very bore event for Umair. They would not return before the next day's sun break the night and they were quite sure about it. Wiki lived in a flat on the ground floor of the builiding just below Umair's, who lived on the first floor.
What's taking them so long, Umair thought, its only downstairs and I'd would be back before midnight, they don't trust me with the keys.
"I think Umair has got big enough to go to his own parties," Umair's father said. "We should let him go. Umair, take these keys and when you come back, lock the door with the key, but for God's sake don't latch it, I don't want us banging the door at Fajar's time which will be quite useless because you wont wake up so early to open the door."

"Aji, he is just eight years old, I'm still telling you to take him with us", his mother urged.

Yes. He got the permission but it came as a surprise to him: it was easier then he thought. Wiki had told him that the party would start at sharp 8 o' clock.
Later he stood outside the Wiki's flat waiting for his wrist watch to beep.

Beep. Beep.

He rang the bell at exact eight, when the hour's and the minute's hands were merged into one. Wiki's 4 years old sister Warda opened the door wearing a cone-shaped cardboard cap. She let him in. For some reason, the house lights were turned off and the only lights were the dim yellow from the little bulbs. The house walls were pasted with blue and pink decorations. Umair liked Wiki's house and especially his massive collection of toys that mound up occupying half the wall of the common room making a steady slope downwards. But for some reason, Wiki's mother disapproved of Umair, much the same way Umair's mother disliked Wiki. Wiki greeted Umair halfway down the common room when he emerged from staircase wearing a funny tie.
"Whats up yar."
"The usual."
"You sit."
"Whats the tie for?", Umair asked, grinning.
"Birthday", even Wiki couldn't suppress a smile.
"Am I the only one invited?"
"No, why?"
"Then why haven't anyone turned up?"
Wiki shrugged his shoulders, looked onto the big clock hanging on the wall, and said, "Pakistani !"
Bells kept ringing, guests kept coming. A lot many children but a few and far between Uncles and Aunties. It was a relief for the children that they weren't sharing the room with the older folks.
Tulaib and Ayesha were the first ones, Umair reconized. This pair of siblings went to school on the same school bus with him. Tulaib was a year senior than him, Ayesha a year junior. How do they know Wiki? Umair thought. Wiki did not go to the same school as them. Tulaib got busy with the guys putting the pieces of a model of pirate ship together at one corner of the common room. Ayesha came towards him and said,
"Hi footballer, what are you doing here?"
"I'm Wiki's friend, and you?"
"My father's a friend of Wakas' father."
Umair's craze for football was well known in the school. Even Wiki kept complaining about his shoots with which he had lost many of the Wiki's balls in the neighborhood.When they didn't have footballs, they played with a puck made of the crushed tin. Umair was known for his headers on the puck. When one day Ayesha's father dropped Tulaib and Ayesha in the Umair's house, he made the two of them goal keepers covering the wall which was supposed to be his goal, and kept shooting.
Ayesha had small cropped hair and like her brother she was extremely fair. Years later when Umair would watch the movie War of the Worlds, he would wonder who does the Tom Cruise's daughter Dakota Fanning resemble with. Wiki turned on the music and the disco lights.

Asan te jana Bilo de gkhar

Ayesha got up and said,
"Let us dance,"

The girls got up to dance. Ayesha was dancing with an air of a drunk girl in a disco as she had seen girls dance on the TV. Wiki joined them, Tulaib was busy making the pirate ship with the two of those guys, Umair leant against the wall, feeling out of place and looking at Ayesha, who as the time was passing, was going crazier.

Asan te jana Bilo de gkhar

The bell rang. Wiki pushed Warda who was whirling around about the dance floor, excited about the disco lights and the children dancing. She dragged her feet towards the main door, looking annoyed. Umair had started taking interest in the song and he was looking at the giant three storied cake that Wiki's father had just placed on the dining table. He kept scrutinizing the architecture of the cake, a masterpiece of the baker, he thought. He turned his face and BANG. There she stood, a girl in a half sleeved dress shirt and a skirt, with a hairdo which we call boycut if a girl wears it. She used to wear a big hairband, but that day, her short hair were fallling downwards covering her ears. She stood there clutching a big gift with a few children on her side. How come she know Wiki, Umair was surprised. Noreen came towards him and smiled at him.
"How come you are here, a cousin?", she asked still smiling.
"No, I live hear, I mean on the first floor. Haven't you seen the bus dropping me here."
"Ahan"
"And you 2-w? How do you know Wiki's family "
"Its Noreen, you footballer." reminding Umair as always.
"And now I'm going to tell everybody here that you read in the 2 class." Umair said, grinning.
"Go on", she chuckled.
Noreen was a year senior than Umair. Once Umair had seen her going to a class with a plate saying 2-W. And then Umair didn't leave a person in the bus telling everyone that she lies about studying in the fourth class. And he would tease her a lot. And they laughed a lot together, and they were too young. Once she told him as they were getting out of the bus and walking towards the school,
"You know you are a darling."
"Who is a darling?"
"You."
"What is a darling?"
"You, you, you.", and she ran away blushing.
Wiki had put the song on a repeat.

Yeh shaam phir nahi aye gi

"Ok, I forgive you, I'm not telling" Umair said.
"Thanks, I knew you wouldn't."
"How come?"
"Because I've started reading your mind, wanna dance?"
"On this song? No ways."
Noreen dragged Umair onto the dance floor and they started dancing, holding hands, and they were too young. For twelve repeats of the song they danced, taking a break to watch Wiki cut the cake and everyone applauded and sang Happy Birthday To You. But they were too busy talking and too busy with themselves to think about anything, and they were too young. After the break they continued to dance. Soon after the twelfth repeat had ended, her arms around his neck, his around her waist, she said,
"Please Umair, for Goodness' sake, tell Wakas not to change this song, look he is changing it."
Umair shouted at Wiki. He stopped short.
The evening got over. The party got finished. Umair went to his home, Noreen to her, Ayesha to her, Wiki stayed in his own.
Many years later when Umair would be in another corner of the world, he would forget everyone at the party. But he would try to find that face in every girl and would say every time someone try to change that song

Yeh shaam phir nahi aye gi

"For Goodness' sake, don't change this song."