Homesick and lonely, Rakesh Modi would have been quite happy to have taken the next flight back to Delhi. When everyone drooled over his two-year post doctoral fellowship in the biochemistry Department of a well-known university in one of the southern states of the USA, Rakesh too felt he had done it at last. The university town was beautiful and quiet. The fall colours seemed to light up every tree with a strange ethereal aura that he had never seen before. He readily adapted himself to the weather which seemed much more pleasant than the extreme climate in Delhi. But Rakesh was lonely. Moreover, he wanted to save as much of his grant money as possible, an Asian instinct that he succumbed to entirely, despite provocations and possibilities.