Aman

Aman, on the day you arrived, Friday the 29th of April 2016, the world was quietly preparing a two-city welcome. In Islamabad, the Margalla Hills were turning that dusty spring green, while 2,000 kilometres away in Dubai, the cranes were busy building what looked suspiciously like a playground for someone who would grow up loving roller coasters and grand stages. Neither city knew it yet, but each had a stake in you, so naturally both carried on as though nothing unusual was happening.

On the world stage, Pakistan was in the thick of a political storm. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was under pressure after the Panama Papers leak earlier that month, which had tied his family to offshore companies, and Islamabad's talk shows were running hot with debate. Over in the UAE, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed was President, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, was steering a city in full ambition mode, with Expo 2020 on the horizon. Further afield, Britain was weeks away from its Brexit referendum, and America was deep in a presidential primary season that had everyone refreshing their news feeds. For a fan of facts and general knowledge, you could hardly have chosen a busier week to start collecting them.

Music was in a strange, emotional moment. Prince had died just eight days earlier, and radios everywhere were playing Purple Rain. Six days before your birthday, Beyoncé dropped Lemonade without warning, and the internet briefly forgot how to function. Rihanna and Drake's Work was sitting at the top of the American charts, while Drake's One Dance was already ruling Britain. Cinemas were full of Disney's The Jungle Book, and Captain America: Civil War had just landed in UAE cinemas a day ahead of much of the world. The bookish and theatrical were busy too. 23 April had marked 400 years since Shakespeare's death, and stages from London to Lahore were staging tributes. It was a fine week for a future lover of books and the performing arts to show up, a little late for the party but just in time for the encore.

Snapshot facts are AI-generated and may occasionally contain inaccuracies.

In sport, both your cities had a shared victory to remember. Just two months before, the very first Pakistan Super League final was played in Dubai, and Islamabad United lifted the trophy. It was the perfect bridge between your two homes. In England, Leicester City were days away from winning the Premier League at 5000-1 odds, which proves anything can happen. The weather played its part as well. Islamabad was enjoying warm late-April afternoons around 30°C, while Dubai was edging past 35°C, the sort of heat that sends sensible people to air-conditioned malls and indoor ski slopes.

And Dubai had surprises still to come that year. IMG Worlds of Adventure, one of the largest indoor theme parks on the planet, would open that August, Dubai Opera would raise its curtain at the end of the month, and Dubai Parks and Resorts would follow in October. It was almost as if the city had read your future wish list and decided to start building. So here's to you, Aman. You arrived in a world of protests and power ballads, Shakespeare and cricket, one foot in the hills and one by the sea. Not a bad start for someone who would one day want to know the whole story.