All three entered the building. The restaurant was dimly lit. Chandeliers hung here and there. Apart from the engravings on the doors and windows there were a few Chinese miniature paintings. In one painting, a family was having dinner in a peaceful atmosphere. In another painting, a Chinese girl was shown to be chopping vegetables. Vidhi’s eyes stayed at the third painting for longer than a moment. In that painting Eros’s beloved Psyche sat on a raised platform. Eros was looking at Psyche with eyes overflowing with passion. Their bodies were immensely attractive. Both the deities were nude, but they were oblivious of each other’s exposed bodies, and each was lost in the other’s eyes. For a minute the thought crossed Vidhi’s mind, ‘Is the eye really the home of our souls?’

She answered it herself, ‘The house of the soul is our desire that resides in someone else’s body.’

Hina appreciated the service and the clean glass crockery of the restaurant. She had just moved her hands towards the glass when a waiter poured water into it from a jug. She thanked him and drank the water. Vidhi looked at her. Hina smiled. Vidhi exclaimed, ‘I’ve never seen such an amazing Chinese restaurant before!’ Hina agreed with her. Yusuf told them that the restaurant had a buffet system.

A waiter placed plates on their table along with small bowls of different sauces. Vidhi was about to say something when two waiters came and placed chicken and vegetable starters on their table. Yusuf asked Vidhi if she was a vegetarian. Vidhi said that everything worked for her. Yusuf told the waiter to bring vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian dishes. Within five or ten minutes, the entire table was covered with various kinds of starters, which left both Vidhi and Hina astonished. All the dishes were delicious. They were still trying out the starters when a waiter came and asked about their choice of soup. Yusuf ordered plain vegetarian soup. While eating the starters with the garlic sauce, Hina told Yusuf about the educational trip. Vidhi interjected and said that both of them wanted to go on the trip. Hina also told Yusuf that Darakhshan had already refused permission. Yusuf solved the problem by saying that he would talk to Darakhshan about it when he would visit home on Saturday. Hina and Vidhi were glad to hear that.

Yusuf asked Vidhi about her family and her background, and Vidhi was more than pleased to answer the questions. Vidhi told them that her great-grandmother was a German woman who had fallen in love with her great-grandfather. Their tea plantations spread across many acres. She said that her father kept attending conferences of SAARC writers and his collection of poems had won a prestigious South African award recently. His articles on literature and culture were regularly published in famous newspapers. Hina was listening to their conversation while savouring the food. When Vidhi told him about her interest in writing poetry, Yusuf pressed her to recite one of her poems. Vidhi wanted to push this to some other day, but Hina persuaded her to recite. There was no mischief in Hina’s eyes; she genuinely wanted her father to see Vidhi’s talent. Vidhi finally agreed: