Yato hastah tato drishṭih|
Yato drishṭih tato manah|
Yato manah tato bāvah|
Yato bāvah tato rasah|
"Where the hands go, the eyes follow;
Where the eyes go, the mind follows;
Where the mind is, there goes the expression;
Where the expression is, ther...
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•••
"Damn these poor breads." Rishi spoke as they applied butter on their toasts.
"What?"
"Poor breads." Rishi placed the butterknife back on their table, casting a glance to where his mother was picking up fruits from the breakfast buffet.
"Yeah, but why?" Aisha spoke, Chandni still silent with food in her mouth.
She took a sip of water when Rishi said, "They look a-loaf."
Chandni imagined aloof-looking breads and the water went down the wrong pipe. She could feel the water rising up her nasal cavity as she quickly gulped the water and started coughing with a tissue on her nose and mouth.
"What? I really don't get it." Aisha frowned upon Chandni's reaction.
Rishi smirked at the girl who tried to come down from the coughing fit, "Apparently she does."
"He meant—" She rasped before coughing again and she picked up her phone to type instead.
'A-loaf as in aloof' she typed, showing it to Aisha.
"That's just stupid y'know." Aisha rolled her eyes and the three of them felt eyes on them from afar.
Kevin and Malcolm upon noticing the trio, lifted their hand in greeting and the three of them returned it except for Chandni who tried to smile but ended up coughing manically again.
Chandni finally stopped coughing, again, but only Kevin was now looking at her. She lifted her hand in greeting and he smiled and turned away, much to her relief.
"It ain't stupid. It's just a-loaf." Rishi spoke as if defending the breads.
"You—" Chandni's voice was still raspy and half of what she said came out as air, making the other two laugh at her.
Chandni sighed helplessly, clearing her throat and then wrapped her hands around Rishi's neck lightly, shaking as if choking him.
They laughed again, and Chandni noticed few people around the restaurant looking at them occasionally.
Letting out a chuckle, Chandni brought down her hands and continued eating, clearing her throat multiple times to bring her voice back to normalcy.
"I don't see your point. At all. That was a stupid joke. In fact, it's a disgrace to all the jokes out there."
"Is this point enough?" He typed 'poor bread, it's a-loaf' in his phone and pointed at the tittle of the 'i'.
Aisha was done with her life.
"Okay, okay," Chandni slammed a hand down on the table as gently as she can and smiled tightly, "I'm retiring from my dad-joke position. My life's been a waste."
She stood up slowly while stretching her hands in surrender at her friends who chuckled and when she turned playfully as if to walk away, Rishi grabbed her wrist.
