The story ends in a heartbreak. A decade worth of effort and hard work was ultimately futile, as the invitation to visit Tuva came a few weeks too late. Time was but limited for Feynman, yet he hanged on the borrowed time, fighting with the cancer, and winning one battle after another. But that was not a war which could be won.

Ralph Leighton has mesmerized at several places while describing their effort to visit Kyzyl, capital of Tuva. And if you know Feynman one bit, it won't come as shock to you that he decided to visit the place for the simple reason that country's capital has no vowels in its name. That was enough for him, enough to convince him that the place must be 'exciting'. But not everyone in the American and Russian embassy were such buffoon. They needed a reason more subtle than that. And so the work started, an effort which will span over a decade bringing the largest Russian collection of antiques of Central Asia to America.

In 1988, they were sure to get an invitation and hence travel to Kyzyl. Unfortunately though, the Russians needed more time to draft the invitation for Feynman than the life itself gave him. He died of cancer on 15th February, 1988 (the invitation was drafted on 19th February), his dream of playing bongo to Tuvian audience in their auditorium unfulfilled!