April 2009 On this trip to Mullumbimby I received a present that must surely be unique to Australia: a pair of flip-flops with a bottle opener built into the sole, to ensure that when you settle down onto the beach you'll be able to open all the stubbies that you packed on ice in your eskie.

While in Australia I was pleased to learn of the publication (on April 5) of my first-ever article in the venerable Times of India (Sunday supplement), entitled "Duty, Destiny, Dharma ...", and I read When Memory Dies (by A. Sivanandan), a long and sobering book about the beginning of the civil war in Sri Lanka as told from the Tamil side. As I traveled to Oz I finished Small Gods, and shortly after departing thence I had completed Witches Abroad, both part of the Discworld series created by the prolifically hilarious Terry Pratchett. Discworld is (as its name suggests) a improbably flat planet, being transported through the universe toward the Goal on the backs of four gigantic elephants who stand atop the Great A'Tuin, the Cosmic Turtle.

If you are not yet familiar with Mr. Pratchett?s work, you could well introduce yourself to him via his trilogy Truckers, Diggers, and Wings, but let me suggest that you begin with The Wee Free Men, the first of three books (Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith being the other two) that star Tiffany Aching, apprentice witch, who is assisted in her work by a jolly gang of six-inch-tall blue pixies who specialize in stealing, brawling, and drinking (hence the title of the series opener). Sadly, Mr. Pratchett has announced that he suffers from the first stages of early-onset Alzheimer's, which means he may not be with us (at least in form capable of novel-writing) for much longer.

It's enough to make you want to spit the dummy.

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