Ouch!

Day 2
June 2nd, 2011

As usual, Vijay woke up at 5.30 in the morning. In contrast, I woke up at 6:30, late as usual. We ate Idlis for breakfast. Idlis are the best in Chennai, soft and puffy! Almost all of the side dishes in Chennai uses tomato, a LOT of them. I wonder why...
After having breakfast, we left at 8:00 for SETS lab. I felt lost without a morning beverage for 3 days straight, so I had a cup of tea. It was heaven. We reached the lab at 8:30. Sudarshan dropped by at 11.
The first session was quite a busy one. We worked on python, Word Morph Problem, Network Path Connectivity and Reinforcement Learning. I've always wondered why people say that 'Time Flies'. I got a pretty neat answer to that question. I looked at the clock when we started working on the Birthday Paradox, it showed 12:30. After completing the problem, I looked at it again, it showed 4:00! Sudarshan, Vijay and Me went to Ginger for lunch. We talked about how time 'passes' by. There, we met a student from IITM CS Department. We then explained our Boredom Detection Algorithm. On the way back, we were pondering upon why the integral of 1/x is logx. It was inconclusive at that time, because we had reached SETS and had a lot of work ahead of us.

Me and Vijay left SETS around 8:00 I guess. The swelling in my leg was worsening. My feet was bloated up. After having Dosa and Sambar for dinner, we went to the doctor.
I was told not to apply anything on the swelling. And I was given some tablets. Hopefully, the situation gets better over the next few days. My Leg was paining a lot. The internet finally got connected to Vijay's laptop. But there was some problem with my laptop. It wasnt getting connected to the internet. So, I had to Vijay's laptop as the server to access the internet.

Phrase Of the Day: Chennai nalla irk-u

The First Node!

Day 1

June 1st, 2011

We had an early start today. Vijay woke up at 5.30 am and I woke up at 6. I hoped for a better day in Chennai than yesterday. My leg had begun to swell for reasons unknown. The team met up at Indiranagar Railway Station and we headed towards SETS campus nearby. We thought we would be doing our intership in IITM campus. But this was different, and better! We met Sudarshan there and he welcomed us with a big smile. He introduced us to Srinivasa Ramanujam sitting there on an elevated platform. We then went into the building took a look around the workplace. It was the best thing ever!

All 7 of us then left for Ginger, the Tidel Park Restaurant. We had some coffee and Sudarshan briefed us about what we'll be doing for the next two months. The briefing was quite inspiring. It motivated us a lot. We then headed back to SETS and pondered upon some of the classic problems. It started with the maximum sub-array sum. It was noon when we were done solving the problem. So, we headed out to lunch. I had a nice hot Masala Dosa there in the cool A/C restaurant.

After we came back, Prof. Pandurangan gave us an amazing talk on network theory. He is a very jovial, down to earth person. He says he knows Kannada a *bit*, but I think its a lot more than a *bit*. He narrated a incident he had with an Auto Driver in Bangalore. His after-lectures are most interseting and funny ones. He asked which branch we all were from. Me and Vijay answered CS, and the remaining answered IS. He heard it as IT and that led to a great deal of confusion which later lead to the dialogue "IS?? Its worse than IT!!". We got to know that there were 3 classes of computing sciences in Chennai: CS, IT and IS. I guess thats why he(and we) got confused. Next, we had nice sessions on a Prediction Algorithm, Birthday Paradox and Appointment Problem. I knew some basic pyhton and Vijay knew a lot more than that. The two Shruthis and Nikitha had to learn python from scratch. From what I've seen, they've learnt it really really fast.

They left the place around 5 and me & Vijay left around 8. We went to our PG. On that night, dinner wasnt prepared for us. So, we had to go out to eat. By the time we came back, the gate was locked. I jumped the gate and told Vijay that I would get the key. We live on 2nd floor and PG owners at the ground floor whooshed out and start talking with in an irritated mood to Vijay. He somehow managed to make out that they were telling that the gates would be locked by 9.

Phrase of the day: Saapad Sooper!

The day we stepped into Chennai!

Day 0

May 31st, 2011

May 30th, 2011. 10:45 pm:

Me, Vijay, Nikitha, Shruthi Nayak and Shruthi Ranade met at Bangalore Railway Station. The train left Bangalore at 11.45 pm. My home for the next 2 months would be a furnace. But I was excited by the way things turned out. I had slept for 2 hours on the previous day. And this night, we were chatting till 2 in the night. There goes my sleep! I managed to get some shut eyes at 3 in the morning and woke up at 5. So, mathematics tells me that I've slept for 4 hours in 2 days.

We reached Chennai at 7.30 am in the morning. We were in constant touch with Sudarshan Iyengar, our Mentor for the internship. Shruthi's Dad's friend had come to receive the lot. Me and Vijay left for Park Town Railway Station across the road and headed towards Indiranagar in search of the Youth Hostel. I felt that morning was a hot one. It turned out that it was one of the cooler ones. Youth Hostel was supposed to be our temporary stay for a day or two. Sudarshan had been in contact with us via e-mail. He guided us to the hostel. After freshening ourselves up, we headed out for breakfast. We had to buy some accessories too. The mobile had lost its charging and was almost dead. And I constantly needed to be in touch in Sneha, a friend's sister. She lives and works in Chennai by the way. She had searched for a nice good PG and we were keen on checking in into the place.

After being guided and misguided for a long time, Me and Vijay decided we should walk for the Indiranagar Railway Station and take the local train to Kasturibainagar. IITM was at a pretty walkable distance from there. And so we did. We reached IITM front gate and we were thrilled to know that there was a bus service to get to places *inside* the campus. We were also amazed to find out that deers roamed around freely inside the campus. We went to the Hostel blocks there and found out that accomodation wasnt feasible there. I called up Sneha and asked for her assisatnce in getting a PG Accomodation. Later, we went back to the Youth Hostel.

I finally found a charging spot for both the mobile and the laptop. Vijay was tired and told me he would go to sleep. So, I sit there for around 3 hours with my laptop. When I stood up, my leg had started to swell and pain a lot. I thought it would go away on its own, but later I found out that it did not. Sneha had asked us to meet her at Indiranagar Railway Station at 6. So, we checked out of the youth hostel and went to Indiranagar Station at 6pm. Sneha called up and told that her friend would meet us at 7. Around 7.30, we met Sneha's friend, Ananth. He took us to the PG and it was quite comfy, except for the heat factor though. The night sleep was absolutely mesmerizing. The girls had a different story though, mosquitoes! It seems they had bugged them a lot. Me and Vijay were ready for the next morning though, all set to charge! :D

Phrase of the day: Tamil Teriyadu Da..

Oh.. and one last thing, I do count from 0.