Captain's log - cardate 1999.12.25 : LAX transportation chambers. I'm
picked up by Superrangaman and Chock. We set course for Chatsworth to
beam up Biju and Bones and take off. The day seems fairly clear, sunny
and warm - a welcome change from the last location I had been at
- Ithaca - where low temperatures and nasty winds made habitation
sparse...unless of course, the scanty inhabitants there also celebrated
Christmas there as at home and stayed at home thus creating an illusion
of desolation. As we turn off from the Federation Base to get on track,
the door flies open. And there's another of those vehicles behind us and
there is every danger of an exit panel being wrenched clean off the ship.
"Shut that door, Chock, you moron !!!" "Aah, must've messed up closing it
properly, Superrangaman..oops.." and off we go.

-----------------------X--------------------

Road..the final frontier..these are the drives of the carship, Highway
Star. Its twelve day mission - to explore strange new worlds. To
seek out new heights, new vegetation. To boldly go where no man has
gone before....

				CAR WRECK

					- created by K.Narayan

starring - 

K.Narayan as Naru Kirk "I don't really have any preferences. Anything
will do. Nothing is ever good enough. The world is not enough.."

Amit Chakrabarti as Chock "..I only make trips to collect Patel 
Points..but I still can't hear..what I'm listening for..."

Mukund Rangamani as Superrangaman "Life is a bunch of morons..jusht
morons.."

Santosh Pisharody as Spotty "Vaat, me worry ? Whoa, there's that creature
again !" click..click..click..

Biju James Thuruthimattam as Biju and Bones "...now you may not believe
this but this is also Foreigner.."

-----------------------X--------------------

Captain's log - cardate 1999.12.25 : We reach Chatsworth. Unbeknownst
to me, I have contracted a strange disease known to attack the inhabitants
of Ithaca. Chock tells me "The natives call it influenza. It's caused
by a 'virus', a small organism that apparently is on the border of life
as we know it. Fascinating.." Fascinating, my foot. It makes me sick.
Anyway, we land at Chatsworth, where we regroup with Biju and Bones. This
is a friendly place. The food is good, the people warm. And just for the
noncognoscenti, maybe this is a good place to pause and explain a bit of
the interesting development of Biju and Bones. Biju and Bones, from
Michigan, are in reality two people, but fused into one body. Who'd have
ever thought Michigins to have so much structure in them ? But then,
well, that's life..or perhaps lives. In any case, as is not too
unexpected, the cumulative personality is somewhat overwhelming, shall
we say. 

We take off from Chatsworth after Bones and his team give me a shot of
their stuff, which will eventually put me to sleep. Biju sets course for
San Jose, where we regroup with General Namjoshi, Vijay and Ruchita
Ghaskadvi, Srikant Menon, Sarang Wagholikar, Kapil Surlaker and Dubsy
(the acronym will have to suffice since the true name of this Federation
official is buried in the folds of time). Indian food for dinner.

Captain's log - cardate 1999.12.26 : My sickness has intensified. I am
now confined to the Federation Base, San Jose under medication. My whole
trip is in imminent danger of being scrapped. I decide to call it a day
and take some intensive rest and relax, watch a few movies, as also a
video recording of my predecessors in the Federation on the screen. The
others go to San Francisco. In the evening, they return with Spotty, who
I hadn't seen in a long time. Spotty doesn't seem to have changed much.
Except he seems to have grown older and wiser. He does not seem to talk
much, "seems to have grown mature over the years", as Vijay says. Indian
food again for dinner.

Captain's log - cardate 1999.12.27 : I feel much better. We take off for
Stanford. Chock gives some brilliant suggestions of going around in
circles in order to reach the center of the circle, which in this case
was Hoover Tower. Maybe such a circumvented route works on Patel, Chock's
home planet, but it doesn't seem to work here. 

We meet Pinkesh Sachdev and then Thai lunch with a senior officer, Amol
Joshi and a former colleague, Hozef Arif. 

Soon after, we set off for our first destination - Yosemite. I doze off a
bit. Superrangaman seems quite comfortable getting the ship through all
the winding roads and heights. What puzzles me is why he does not simply
fly across the Sierras into the Village in the Valley. Maybe to humor us
weaklings..or perhaps he simply prefers to pose as mild-mannered Mukund,
just to be one of the boys. With other people, one would look for more
down-to-earth reasons, for example, "he's incapable of flight". But
Superrangaman, no way..O well, quien sabe ?

Captain's log - cardate 1999.12.28 : The dinner yesterday night was no
dinner at all. I remember Chock mentioning something about magic in a
thin something or other. It was probably simply delirium. Anyway,
Superrangaman, Spotty and Chock seem to have taken off early, to
investigate the ambience, no doubt. I remember Chock's Patelet beeping
away the previous night, indicating the presence of several Patel points.
Anyway, Biju and Bones and I take the local transportation to inspect the
Valley and eventually end up at the Lower Yosemite Falls, where I
scramble around on some rocks. The others return in the meantime, inform
us of all that's wondrous. They had apparently walked up the Upper
Yosemite Falls, the fifth tallest waterfall on Earth. Even for those who
have been there, done that, this is still impressive. Of course, now it
was a mere whimper, the thunderous roar presumably being saved for warmer
climes. We return to the ship. And then, disaster strikes. Superrangaman
backs up without noticing the large ship right behind him. It was what is
generally known as an RV, one of those treacherous inventions, no doubt
designed to wreck unsuspecting shippers-by. Anyway, there is nothing to
be done about it now. The storage compartments are damaged, our belongings
are outside in Yosemite, which we find out is good as aboriginal, when it
comes to repairing Highway Star. The expedition to Mirror Lake has to
be abandoned. So we decide to get some sustenance. And here's the sneaky
part - Yosemite had arranged itself so that we had to subscribe to what
they had to offer. No choice whatsoever. As for the last nail in the
coffin - Biju realises that our communicator has run out of power,
which means we cannot contact the Federation to beam us out of here. So
we have a submissive meal and Spotty decides to turn in early while the
rest of us hang around for awhile in the Mountain View Cafe, where I
watch Casablanca again, and sketch a few faces of the days gone by,
while the others play cards.

Captain's log - cardate 1999.12.29 : We manage to squeeze in the luggage
in the main cabin of the ship itself. It's rather crazy - any closer 
packing and there would be information loss as we know it. En route out,
we stop over at this Mariposa grove of giant Sequoias - vegetation of
immense stature, over a 100 ft in height, and we had seen nothing
apparently, they grow to about 250 ft easily. We reach Oakhurst, where
the storage compartments are opened at a Base outlet and we get the
luggage in. Phew ! That was close. But Highway Star is damaged. We cannot
afford to leave our belongings in the ship, while we saunter around.
Spotty improvises on engineering and tentatively rigs up the storage
compartments with the available resources.

Anyway, the only way out across to the other side is across this huge
potential barrier called Tioga Pass. In layman terms, leaving out the
technicalities, it is about 9000 ft high. And the roads are again winding
and snowed up. They do clear the snow though, but of course one is
entitled to be apprehensive. However Superrangaman seems to know what
he's doing..this time. Along the way, we get some breathtaking views of
the Sierras and the valleys. Also, the Merced river snakes through the
valley and amazingly enough, the water at places is rather motionless
yielding a crystal clear reflection. Maybe Mirror Lake would not have
been too surprising, after all. I then doze off a bit.

We've reached the vicinity of Mono Lake. This is supposed to be a very
scenic place, but as luck would have it, it's after dark "when the powers
of evil are exalted" as some Englishman once said. So we decide against
hanging around a while longer, turn on the stereo and Biju sets course
for Lone Pine, whose "glitter" after Yosemite's primeval settings reminds
Chock of a certain Sunset Boulevard. "Fascinating".. Dinner turns out to
be some pancakes for me.

Captain's log - cardate 1999.12.30 : We manage to see the early rays of
the sun on Mt.Whitney, supposedly the highest peak, about 14,500 ft, in
mainland USA. "It's a bird !" "It's a plane !" Nope. Superrangaman
had decided to fly now (it was more a hop, skip and jump really) over
some rocks. He poses, just for the record, complete with Whitney in the
backdrop and all. "I hope you got the red and blue cape flapping in the
wind, moronsh. Or elshe.."

Pancakes again for breakfast. Spotty spots a grackle, nay several and goes
click-click-click. Superrangaman decides he wants some documentation, so
whips out his supercamera and goes click-click-click as well. That done,
Spotty rigs up the storage and Biju sets course for Death Valley. Now
this may sound sepulchral, but that truly is the name of this place.
Apparently, in warmer climes, temperatures here reach upto about 50 C.
Interesting change of scene. Phantasmagoria ? Just yesterday, we were
surrounded by cold granite and now there are hot sand dunes all over.
"Fascinating". Fascinating indeed. And the Patelet beeps..yet again.

We pause to take stock of the slight climb, the valley, the sand dunes
and the mountains beyond, enveloped by azure skies. Fascinating view
really. Onto Death Valley. Meantime, Biju and Bones play Dil Se in the
background. The lilting melody seems to blend well with the ambience, is
reminiscent of the video of the song itself and sends me into raptures.
After a brief stop to get our bearings right, we head on into Badwater.
Not that we intended to drink any. But the name derives from the poor
quality of water in the region, the lowest point (282 ft below sea level)
in mainland USA. 

The Patelet's gone berserk - probably signalling the significant change
in altitude through the day. We head on via Artist's Pallette, a place
where oxidation of salts had given fairly colorful hues somewhat akin to
its name, towards Natural Bridge, a big arch formed naturally from
sandstone, Golden Theatre, a natural amphitheatre some distance from the
road onwards to Zabrisky point to witness a lovely sunset.

Biju sets course and we now pass through California and Nevada briefly, 
onward into Arizona, the Grand Canyon state. Along the way, we catch a
glimpse through the night of the skyline of Las Vegas, that mother of all
that glitters. That apart, Nevada is pretty much desert country and
road leads onto road, with nothing in the vicinity. We pause to refuel
while Biju and Bones comment on the tunes "..and this is Foreigner..".
Sounded quite foreign to me. "Couldn't really hear you..Repeat..".
"Chock, you moron, get your earsh examined !"
 
After going around in circles a bit, we pass over Hoover Dam into Arizona. 
Kingman at last. It's been a tiring day. Pancakes yet again. Blech.

Captain's log - cardate 1999.12.31 : We take off for Williams and Grand
Canyon. The sun is shining, the tapes are singing and all's right with the
world. Or so we think. Mexican lunch at Williams, a very welcome change to
erstwhile food. We catch glimpses of the historic Route 66 and take off
for Grand Canyon. En route, Biju and Bones make inquiries of getting the
global perspective on the Canyon, via iron birds that fly, and set
appointments for the next day. We lodge at Tusayan, a smallish town just
outside the Canyon, in Quality Inn.  We take off for the Canyon, drive
through some overlook points and watch the Canyon in all its glory. It is
indeed Grand. Down below in the Valley snakes the Colorado river, which is
supposed to have carved out this monumental crevice. Groovy. Here and
there, rises a temple, this being a big conical structure sculpted out
essentially by the force of the water, the disparity in the layers of soil
- sandstone, shale, limestone among others - on the temples indicating the
wheel of time in the formation of this monolith. The only thing that could
have been more satisfying is a bit of sunshine. The skies are overcast. It
still leaves room for hikes of course. Superrangaman and Spotty have been
raving about following this Canyon Trail that goes all the way down the
canyon and returning by sundown. Chock and I decide to take a more relaxed
viewpoint - we decide to take the South Kaibab Trail, that has a few
interesting overlook points along the way. We go to the Village Store and
equip ourselves with sustenance, for the next day is going to be Big. We
return to the Lodge. It's New Year's Eve and we watch Times Square prepare
to go berserk with merriment on the screen.

Captain's log - cardate 2000.01.01 : We are unable to move. There seems
to be a strange force field all around. It seems to be the same white
mess that plagues the inhabitants of Ithaca, as I remember. They called
it snow. Obnoxious thing. O well, there's nothing to be done about it,
I guess. Guess the snow must also damage Superrangaman's superpowers, for
otherwise I'm sure he would prance all over the air. I have this idea
from this episode of my predecessors where the aliens play tricks with
the minds of the Enterprise crew and simulate the Wild West, so much
so that they are tricked into believing even in the death of one of them,
until Spock realizes the truth. Perhaps this is a trick ? So I try to
outbelieve the snow, but no, it doesn't go away. This is no illusion.
O well.

It's snowed almost six inches now. If we don't use full blast and get out
of this force field, we might never make it out. So we frenetically load
the storage compartments, Spotty engineers it and we drive off into the
snow-soaked road. Some distance down, Superrangaman (with his X-ray
vision, no doubt) pierces right through the clouds and sights the sun.
Soon we all see it shimmering away, even with our mortal powers. To turn
back or not to turn back to the Canyon, is the question. Finally
Superrangaman supertwists our arms (I should hasten to mention that I
did not have any preferences), we are convinced and we head back. 

It was worth it of course. The Canyon in this white mess is certainly a
sight to behold. Through all the cloud and fog, now and then one of the
temples is lit up by sunlight. Now and then, one sees the Colorado river
down below. The Patelet was not working now, having beeped itself out.
Superrangaman and Spotty feel a sudden irrepressible urge to walk the
straight and narrow, so they decide to walk the Rim Trail. The rest of
us hang around, sheltered from the vagaries of this place. And then
ensues a discussion on our home planet, IIT, which soon peters off.

The East Rim is now open and we take off. We stop off at Desert Overlook
Point where we get an impressive view of the Canyon, the sun through the
clouds, the Colorado river snaking below and the plateaus on the other
side. Truly magnificent. "Fascinating", says Chock, "But it would have
been more fun to see the Canyon in full sunlight. More Patel Points
anyway.." I decide to philosophize "Well, nothing is ever good enough.
The world is not enough..so..." This was a pretty good view.

Must be another of those blasted phantasms - we have only just left the
snow and now, it's desert and the plains again. Biju sets course for Utah,
home of Zion. We reach Springdale at night where we lodge in. Dinner at
Hurricane, a short drive. All this scenic panorama has made me want
to sketch again, so over dinner, I take up the crayons at reach (rather
convenient, that) and sketch a sunset. Wish there were more colors in
the box. 

Captain's log - cardate 2000.01.02 : Apparently Superrangaman and Spotty
were out en route trying to trek up Angels' Landing. Given the level of
difficulty of this trail, I still cannot help wondering why he doesn't
simply resort to flying, Spotty perched atop the shoulder presumably.
Soon the answer reveals itself. By 6.30 am, it's snowing again, which of
course would put a dent in those superpowers, no doubt. By 8 am or
thenabouts, they are back. Spotty apparently did not want to desert ship
so he stayed in it while Superrangaman plodded away till his now
snow-foiled not-so-superpowers forced him to turn back fairly early on in 
the trail. The rest of us were relaxing away, entwined with the screen. 

It's about 10 am or so. The snow's gone. We decide to drive through the
Canyon. Drive on through the Court of the Patriarchs and towards the
Great White Throne. "Fascinating". An illuminating panorama of cloud, 
sun and silhouette against a Navajo sandstone backdrop displays itself.
Rather picturesque. Spotty goes nuts over some more creatures he's
spotted. Eventually we tear him away from them (had to also tear away
Superrangaman, which took some doing) and head back to the Emerald Pool
Trail. 

This must truly be a historic moment seeing that Biju and Bones are also
hiking alongside the rest of us. The change in vegetation is truly
colorful - the green valley, the red Navajo sandstone of the mountains
and snow along the upper reaches of the trails. 

The Upper Emerald Pool is enchanting - rocks all over, the cliffs
surrounding the pool. The pool is covered for the most part by a thin
sheet of ice. The uncovered part and the still water provide a clear
reflection. "Fascinating". I find myself unable to resist scrambling
over the rocks and follow Superrangaman and Spotty over the rocks all
around the pool and back. 

We head back down the trail but this time, return along another, which
leads down along the cliff and behind the falls from the middle Pool.
Nice view. 

It's 2.30 pm and I don't feel like hiking up Angels' Landing so while
Superrangaman and Spotty go back to hike up that trail (feel free to be
reminded of those lifeforms that revel in going without food or drink for
months on end, relentlessly pursuing their prey), the rest of us refuel
ourselves in Springdale at a Mexican place and then watch the screen
again. This time, it's espionage, with a license to kill. 

It's dinner at Hurricane again. They had apparently turned back
down the trail - a hard one at that apparently - not wanting to be kept
in the dark. Apparently a certain confused lifeform espied Spotty and
took a sudden affinity to him. Spotty naturally warmed up as well to his
deer. And it's back to the screen for the die-hards...

Captain's log - cardate 2000.01.03 : We're off for Kolob Canyons after a
drive through a long tunnel in Zion. Unfortunately there isn't time enough
for a hike to Kolob Arch, a rather large natural arch or to Double Arch
Alcove. We settle for the Canyon Overlook Point and reach the trailhead.
Superrangaman, Spotty and I take off for the trail.

Tracks in the snow ! "Fascinating!" It's not clear what strange lifeform
could leave such tracks. The snow has incapacitated Superrangaman's
superpowers so there is but one way to find out what the lifeform is -
follow the tracks. So we do just that. Trudge through the foot and more
of snow, that is.

It's been about half an hour or thereabouts. The tracks keep going.

We are about to turn back. "Look, there's that creature ! It's got four
legs !" "Vaat ? Four legs ?!" Superrangaman, who perhaps hasn't lost all
his supervision seems to have spotted something with four legs, as the
astute reader will have gleaned by now. Off we go in hot pursuit...mmm,
maybe not all that hot, with all that snow around...

So much for four legs. Well, it did have more feet than we had, so it got
away. O well. "Let's trudge back.."

Mexican lunch at St.George. Chock spends time dressing for the occasion
in the ship. Biju and Bones order fried ice cream. I follow suit seeing
that it's so cool, but since I do not want my erstwhile influenza to
boomerang, Spotty helps out in finishing it by going for the whipped
cream "This stuff's cool indeed..". "Can't hear you still.." And
Superrangaman has the rest.

En route to Las Vegas. I seem to have dozed off. "Hey Spotty. Chock. There
must be some strange compressional force field around these parts. How
come there's not much space back here ?" "There will be, Naru, if you
keep your right leg to the right of your left leg." Oops. That explains
it. I was sitting cross-legged...."Vaat to do, he's like this only."

Slight detour to Lake Mead. There's no snow and Superrangaman has spotted
it in the distance. That supervision must be something else. The rest of
us don't seem to be able to sight it yet. Anyway, the colorful red and
blue caped crusader steers us towards the Lake. "..and yellow.." And
yellow of course. Red and blue and yellow. 

"...aah, now This is Foreigner.." "Can't hear you yet, Bones.."

Lake Mead. Cosy recreation center. Nice sunset as well. Strangely enough, 
all of us but Chock seem to have grown a lot younger. We skip stones over
the water to see how many bounces we get. Well, I don't seem to have grown
all that young, I hardly get any bounces. The others though seem to be
the veritable picture of youth relatively - the water seems like an
elastic surface, Lots of bounces..

Citylights ! Las Vegas ! That glitz ! That amazing skyline ! 
"Fascinating !" The Patelet's conked off. We get into the Base.

Dinner at a buffet. Chock is wearing earmuffs. Maybe that's just as
well. This way, nobody will notice those pointed ears of his. "This way,
you won't be able to tell if it's the earmuffs or me that cannot
hear...", he says. Fair enough.

Biju and Bones decide they've had enough. They return to the Base while
the rest of us - some overawed by all these lights - decide to walk down
Las Vegas Boulevard. Strangely enough, the clock seems to have been set
an hour back so that we now had an extra glittery hour at our disposal.

Now if this isn't a phantasm, I'll be damned. Sunken treasure with skull
and cross-bones ! Now it's a volcano. Venice ! Now it's the Eiffel Tower
at Paris. It's Lady Liberty and New York City ! Disneyland ! Egypt - the
Sphinx and the Pyramids ! Now it's .....

That must be some transporter...

Captain's log - cardate 2000.01.04 : Having decided we need to see those
phantasms again in broad daylight, Spotty, Chock and I have been out on
the Boulevard since 7.30 am, after a brief sleep from sometime late 
yesterday night. The phantasms are there, but we cannot get to them until
10 am apparently. O well. We turn back. But the place seems almost like
any other place during the day - none of that glitter remains - so maybe
it's just as well....

We're off for Joshua Tree. The Patelet seems to be beeping. There doesn't
seem to be anything in sight though. 

"And there's the world's largest thermometer now ! Fascinating ! More
Patel points !" Chock decides to pose while we get the camera out. "Smile,
Chock.." And he flashes a brief smile. Literally flashes. Reminds me of
the Cheshire Cat and the ear-to-ear grin. Of course, here it's the smile
that begins to disappear eventually...

We're off again. "...now you may not believe this but this is also
Foreigner.." "Bones, are you sure ?" "Affirmative." The Patelet beeps as
we pass by a signboard reading "EXIT - Zzyzx road".

"...and this is also Foreigner.."

"...Foreigner yet again..."

Joshua trees. Lots of them. Joshua Tree at last. 

Food and the jawbreaking screen again....

Captain's log - cardate 2000.01.05 : Superrangaman and Spotty seem to
have left early as usual. The rest of us are lazing around.

11 am. If we do not leave very soon, we might be held captive unless we
can pay extra and bail ourselves out of this one and Superrangaman and
Spotty are not back yet. 

11.03 am. The door flies open and in walks Superrangaman. And Spotty.
They had warm jackets and no water in the now not-so-cool weather and 
had lost the way, every direction in the desert being approximately 
isomorphic to every other, hence the delay. But it was an interesting
hike, very reminiscent of an unfinished hike that Superrangaman, Spotty
and I had undertaken not too long back which had several similar
features. "Spotty, you feel like going back to finish that hike, this
time along the right trail ?" "Nope, I think I'd like to leave that as
it is.." The Unfinished Hike.. "Third Annivershary, it almosht ish..."

Spotty's done up the storage compartments and we're on a drive through
Joshua Tree. Rocks all over the place. Classic rock. "..fascinating.."

We have spotted The Joshua tree. Biju and Bones as also Chock have this
interesting suggestion of simulating a photograph of us in specific
postures with a Joshua tree in the background, which turns out to resemble
a certain music album of that name by the group, U2, of the days gone by.
In retrospect, this turns out to be a memorable idea. I had no idea Spotty
would so resemble a rockstar himself, especially with his hair all
disheveled. That done, Superrangaman decides he wants to get a feel for
how wingless mortals feel, so he decides to climb this relatively big
Joshua tree. Biju and Bones decide to follow suit. I decide this is
probably going to be the end of at least the tree, so decide it's worth a
snap or two. And sure enough, the tree literally sways. But it does not
fall. Hmm, maybe Biju and Bones is just one person after all, like the
rest of us...

A brief pause at Keys Point, where the winds howl. It's a wild, windswept 
place indeed.

"Coyote !" CLICK-CLICK-CLICK. "I vaant to go after it !" "Don't, Spotty,
you'll scare it away.." Too late. 

"It's there again !" This time, it's moving in slowly. "Don't anyone
open any windowsh or doorsh, moronsh. Lesht that lifeform attacksh.."
Some great snaps we get.

The Cholla Cacti at last. Fairly large grove of them. Superrangaman and
Spotty are already in. Chock and I turn into the grove as well.

"Naru, this cactus thorn ball seems to have stuck to my
pants..fascinating. Can't seem to get it off though.." "Wait, Chock, I'll
pluck it off. This is going to be a piece of cake so here goes.." "Are
you sure you won't pierce yourself with all those thorns isotropically
arranged in a ball ?" "Of course. Trust me. I know what I'm doing..", I
say nonchalantly.

"Oooouuuuch ! Double Ouch !! That hurts ! Those thorns are isotropically
arranged in a ball !" 

"They're off your pants but now they've got three of my fingers ! Oww !!"

Phew ! The blasted thing's off my fingers. But the fingers still smart.
That was dumb...

We're almost out of the grove. "Hey ! Look at that sign, it informs us to 
keep away from the thorn balls - they can sting pretty nastily.." I knew.
I knew.

The road again. Everyone seems faraway and reflective. It's almost the
end of the mission. We've been there and now it's time to go back again.
Time to return to Pasadena. It's a two hour drive. What did we do ?
We did explore strange new worlds. At least some of us incessantly sought
out new heights. We did seek out new vegetation. We've certainly boldly
gone where no man had gone before. Well, not too many men anyway. Not
during a twelve day mission over the turn of the second millenium
into the third anyway. Not with a damaged carship temporarily rigged up,
anyway. Not without a communicator. Not with chinks in the superpowers.
Not with almost six people in a carship, some more foreign than others.
Not with ardent Patels with earmuffs. Not sitting influenzally
cross-legged with almost no preferences. Not with so much stoic maturity
either. 

We seem to have misplaced the Patelet. We lost it in the Cacti grove
amidst pulling off the thorn ball perhaps.

Pasadena. Time for dinner. "Let's go Thai again." There's a restaurant
nearby.

I decide to have the vegetarian soup. "And I'll have the vegetarian red
curry," says Spotty. The rest of them are rapacious as ever.

We've paid the bill and we're ready to leave and drop off Biju and Bones
at the local transporter chambers. Chock himself leaves tomorrow. As
we're leaving the door, "You've left your jacket, Spotty, Sir." "Vaat ?
Oh, thank you. I completely forgot." And the attendant sermonizes,
"That's the first thing to go when you turn vegetarian..your mind.."
I suppose I'll keep that in mind. 

Mmm, maybe that's not such a good idea after all.....

EPILOGUE

"Can anybody tell me how someone who kept taking naps every now and then
managed to see so much ?" Maybe I was asleep. Maybe I dreamt it all up.
But it did fit. Like a dream. A midwinter fortnight's dream....


Appendix --

Explanatory Notes :

Patel - While the true origin of this phrase is not known and may not
stem from any real Patel, the Federation Grapevine has the following
description - a planet whose inhabitants make trips with the sole
intention of collecting what are called Patel points. A Patel is not
simply satisfied with a trip to a tourist spot but must needs obtain
proof, often in the form of a photograph of him/herself with the essence
of the tourist spot in the background. This is perhaps with a view to
impressing upon other Patels back home the factuality of the trip itself.
Patel points are a natural quantitative measure of the above innate desire
of the true Patel. Thus tourist spots are classified on the basis of how
impressive they are, but probably more importantly how impressive they
look back home and on paper. To the best of my knowledge from the
Federation Archives, no Patel has undertaken the astronomical task of
classifying the universe as we know it on the basis of Patel points and
constructing a relief map thereof, though the Federation Grapevine does
have statistics on Patel points for several places around the globe but
no archived documentation. Of course, in this day and age of pollution,
several Patels are not true Patels, but are contaminated with a serious
passion to actually tour for the sake of touring, devoid of any other
motivation. Most others are of course mixed breeds. Chock himself is a
curious phenomenon - his roots are not truly Patel in origin, but through
some inexplicable circumstance, he seems to have inherited fairly purebred
Patel traits. Fascinating, as he says.

Patelet - A mythical device that, based on the Grapevine, has a restricted
database of places and their Patel points. The inner design of this device
is not entirely understood, but lore has it that the Ancient Patels, who
presumably were wiser and more foresightful, did have the mettle to
engineer these devices in bulk. These are especially convenient for those
who are not purebred Patels, for they beep when near a place with a large
number of associated Patel points. Of course, there is no better Patelet
than a purebred Patel but this is more or less a mathematical idealization
in this day and age.

communicator - several people seem to loosely refer to this as a
"cellphone", but it's really far more complicated.