My undergraduate course ended in May and the following month was a period of sloth and pottering about. I had made great many plans but slept them all off. Almost everyday went like this: late rise, lunch, siesta, tiffin, nap, dinner and an early good-night. When June drew to a close, tired of doing nothing, i began preparations to join the MS-IT course at SSN School of Advanced Software Engineering (in association with Carnegie Mellon University, USA). I looked forward to it due to the fact that it being a residential course, I would be staying in a hostel for the first time in my life.

It was with such conflicting emotions that I landed at the SSN campus at Kalavakkam (near Madras) in the afternoon of the 30th of June. I have given below extracts from my journal of that period.

 

30 June 2003.

Arrived at the SSN campus in the afternoon. As the students of the previous batch had not yet vacated their rooms, I was given temporary accommodation at another wing of the hostel. Met students who had come from different parts of the country: Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore and, of all places, Patna. The class may turn out to be a sort of mini-India. In future, new students would perhaps ask each other the question made so famous in Pilani, "Which state are you (sic)?" (For which the reply, tongue-in-cheek, was "Gaseous.")

1 July.

Today, Rajat (the Delhiite) persuaded me to accompany him to Madras (40km from SSN) on his bike. He wanted to make some purchases and thought taking me along would be helpful in finding the routes. He regretted his decision on learning later that I was a bit of a stay-at-home. (if I had to go somewhere I usually got my father to make me detailed maps.) He was relieved to know I atleast knew the local language and I assisted him by getting the directions to various places from autorickshaw-men.

Meanwhile, the other students had also come to the city. We all went to watch "Matrix Reloaded" (which makes it perhaps the tenth film I have ever watched at a cinema). It is a second part of a trilogy, and is set in a futuristic timeframe when computers have gained control over humans. The good-guys alternate between "virtual" and "real" worlds in their fight against evil, and in their spare time, mouth philosophy. Though it is a kind of a sci-fi movie, the characters seem to prefer their fists to laser guns.

We went for lunch to a branch of Saravana's, where the motto seemed to be, "If you feel the customers aren't hungry, make them;" we had to wait for nearly an hour for our food.

I would rather not dwell upon the journey back. Evokes painful memories.

2 July.

The welcome function. Dr. S. Albal, Director of SSNSASE (and formerly of IIT Bombay) and Dr. Lynn Carter of CMU West gave presentations. The outgoing students explained their projects and generally advised us to plan well and work hard.

Many students arrived only today. Three from Visakhapatnam, ten from Madras (of which five were from SSN Engineering College), two from TN districts. Got to know many of them.

3 July.

Dr Albal introduced us to the structure of the course and gave an outline of the subjects.

Being the first lecture in many months, it took some effort to be present (in the full sense of the term) throughout the two hours.

In the evening I learnt the basics of basketball.

4 July.

My first visit to a gym. There was this machine with various devices used to work out different parts of the body. I touched it reverently and restricted myself to the aerobic bike. I did not wish to work a muscle the wrong way and injure myself.

The gym is located in the sports complex which has facilities for basketball, badminton, squash, with wooden flooring. No other type of footwear but sports shoes are allowed to prevent damage to the wood. The Nike that my parents bought me against my wishes was to be of some use after all...

5 July.

We had a lecture on OOAD and UML by Dr Sivakumar (from Rational Software, the company where Grady Booch, Jacobson and other gods of the Software Engineering pantheon work). It was great listening to someone from such a respected organisation.