SUMMER ENDS

I came to Madras on 21 May hoping to utilize my summer effectively. I am leaving today, so I thought it would be nice to pen my activities of the last two months.

The first week was complete time pass. Did not do anything worth remembering. From the next week we (three of my classmates and me) were introduced to the team that was going to work together. There were three guys from NITs. Prashant and Hemant from NIT Trichy and Mukund from NIT Allahabad. Sree Harikrishnan, Y R Venu, Deivapalan and Kasiranjan were the MS scholars who were there to guide us. More about them later. As days passed by, I started to go to the lab and sit in front of the computer passing time. The work moved very slowly and I was running out of patience. I watched many movies, classics like 12 Angry Men and Pulp Fiction ..., old hindi movies like choti se baat ... and new releases. Two and a half men was running side by side. No work and all play.

Then I saw every one working and finishing stuff at mind-blowing rate. So I thought lets chip in too. And because of this state of mind I was able to contribute something, though a minute drop in the ocean. In the beginning it looked as if I was going to waste my time and regret doing this, but by the last week this changed completely. I realized that I was having a nice time and surely, nice it was.

Now about the people:
Hari - He is the sweetest guy you will find. You can call him any time you want and he will be ready to help you. Others might say read this or search for this or that but this guy will sit with you, tell you everything he knows about the thing and if he doesn't he will search for the answer with you. It was because of him that anything was achieved at all. He works day and night. Leaves lab after midnight and the next morning he will be there even before you are there and much fresher than you are after ten hours of sleep. I asked him if he even slept or watched movies, he said he did both. Well he kept track of Wimbledon. Though out of everyone here, I was the only one who saw the matches live on tv. He's on his way to Switzerland in the best university there for recognition and the like to do his PhD. Great guy. And thanks for the treat.

Venu - He is largely interested in speech and the like. He is from Electrical so he doesn't help with coding and stuff. Any problem related to waveforms and all, he was to be contacted. Not in lab always but then he says he has to go to his own lab in Elec Department. No comments on that. Lazy and will do anything to stop work.

Kasi - He dealt with UTF-8 and all. He's going to Morgan Stanley. Easy to talk to and helpful. Clarified doubts whenever I asked him. He too practically lives in the lab. Though he said that as he's leaving now, he's spending less time in the lab. Can't imagine what he did during the semester. He accepted that he worked on Sundays too. Well if you want to patent something may be you have to work on Sundays too. Thanks for the treat.

Deiva - Perl, Python, Script and so on. I may not even have heard the names. Clear fundaes and was the one driving the Labeling Tool. But he had the most driven one amongst the seven of us, so his work was easy. When madam asked him to check our design documents, he worked like hell. Took all our codes, read them, understood them and put comments like a seasoned programmer. I had a tough time trying to do what he asked me too. But I had a victory too. He was bowled over by my design doc. Yes, yes I suck at coding but ask me to talk and write, I will put some good stuff together.

Now the visitors
Hemant - This guy watches movies, sitcoms and what not. south park, x-files, two and a half men, blackadder ... well so have I. Dunno when he finishes his work and leaves. So quick. Read some pseud papers before starting work and the outcome was great. Wants to do MS abroad. And he is very much worried about it. Will talk to anybody regarding it. Interested in dramatics. He even mails a prof in IITM (some hss prof) in this matter. I have never heard of her and I'm sure neither must have ninety nine percent of the people here.

Prashant - He was either preparing for GRE or for his placements. Put hazaar fight for aptitude part of the placement test. In one of the apti tests, he put full marks but not even half in the electrical test. All of his remaining friends did the other way round. The person who visited the lab the least. In his college he is BP 2. Nine pointer. Name any crap movie and he would have seen it. Ask him about a good movie and he is clueless. As Hemant rightly put it - 'If Prashant says a movies is good, then its bad. If he says its good, you know you would not want to watch it.'

Mukund - Mobile manic. Keeps talking and talking on his cellphone. I don't know how many times he has recharged, because I know one thing which everyone else accepts - we have gone to get a recharge for him more than we have gone for ourselves. He's in elec but a much better programmer than rest of us six put together. perl, python, java, script, seg ... I really don't even know all the names. He did more of my part of work than I did myself. And this was after he had done so much of his own part. Literally lives in the lab. If you have a look at the register in which the lab closer and lab opener puts his name, you will find his name on all the days of the two months.

These guys together really made this two months enjoyable. It was fun working with all of them and I will remember this time for a long long time.

THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2007 Wimbledon Gentlemen's Single Final is over and Roger Federer has won it again, defeating Rafael Nadal again. What a match. 7-6(9-7) 4-6 7-6(7-3) 2-6 6-2. The champion was made to work for each and every point he won. Finally there was someone who could stand in front of him and treat him as the way he does others. The only reason the result turned in his favour was that he played the big points as a seasoned campaigner.

The first set - In the beginning it looked as if Roger would run away with the title with a 3-0 lead. But Rafa had other plans. He fought and returned the favour and the set went to the tie-breaker. Roger always led in the tie-breaker and won it 9-7 not before Rafa put a decent fight.

The second set - It was Rafa's set. He outplayed Roger and this was just the beginning of Rafa's brilliant performance.

The third set - Both tried to out-do the other but to no avail. The tie-breaker settled this one too. If only Rafa could play tie-breakers better, the match would have finished in 4 sets itself.

The fourth set - Rafa all the way. The composure he showed was admirable. He ran up a 4-0 lead, breaking Roger twice. This was the best point of the match. One could see Roger troubled. Well he was receiving his own medicine. At that point of time it was looking as if Rafa would finally be able to stop the master on his own favourite surface. Breathtaking cross court winners. Roger's net approaches were responded with great winners. And yes Rafa would better improve his backhand. His backhanded spin is great but the backhand shot is a matter of concern.

The fifth set - Rafa pressurized Roger in the beginning with 4 breakpoints in 2 games. But this is when the champion showed why he is the best. He won the big points as he had the tie-breakers. Whenever he was in trouble he resorted to his best weapon - big serve. And those aces made his game. Once Rafa was broken, Roger never looked back.

Rafa had just 1 ace to Roger's 24. He also lacked speed. But he is getting used to grass. Only 40 odd matches on grass and he has got into the Wimbledon final twice. And the second time, nearly winning it. If he improves his serve and backhand, he can surely win the prestigious title. Hats off to both of them for an exciting match.