Woohoo, I’ve managed to clear the hurdle at 220 Anna Salai. But let me tell you guys, Chennai can drive anyone mad. Here is what I recollect from my trip (I do not have a camera so no pics):
- We drop in at a 3 star hotel named Dee Cee Manor ( who rates these hotels by the way? 3 stars is like overrating this establishment’s ridiculous rooms/food ).
- The autos suck. Oh yes! Spencer’s Plaza is a cool shopping center and it is about 2 kilometers from Dee Cee Manor. The first auto driver I met said 120 rupees. F*ck, 120 ? For 2 kilometers? Right, I ask the bugger to put on the meter. He says no. The next guy I meet charges me 60. I climb in and realize that auto drivers in Hyderabad are better than most others
- I then purchased two albums I had been dying to get my hands on, Paul McCartney’s Memory Almost Full and the #1 Beatle’s (I spent all my music aware days listening to the Beatles).
- I then go to the consulate and the doors impress me.
- The VO looks at my i20 and scribbles on my DS156 and then says in 1 week, your passport will be with you. Wee ! No questions !
- Then I went to Tirupathi ( no stupid comments on my religious beliefs. My faith is my own ).
- I took a train to the aforementioned location. A marwari family climbed and make a mess of everything, moving people around to accommodate that king sized, 20 member family of theirs. Bah, they kept shouting, put on music at 100 decibels ( and promptly earned abuse from my mother ). I know a marwari family myself and they are bloody educated and know how to behave in public. I still think people in our nation need to understand the notion of Public property and how all citizens are entitled to silence and deserve as much space as they have paid for ( which is limited to one seat in this case ).
- I then realized that Tirupathi wasn’t something I could survive. Did nothing there.
Oh by the way, I solved a problem ( albiet an easy one ) from the YSU-ACM High School Programming Contest – 1991 ( The best I could perform when the silence was under siege by this bloody family) on the way to Tirupathi. Here is the question: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~hilfingr/programming-contest/ysu_94.pdf (the inverted triangles sum).
Here is the solution:
#Author: Shriphani Palakodety
#YSU-ACM programming contest
#1991 PSet
#Premature optimization is the root of all evil.
# - Shriphani Palakodety ( 2008 A.D )
level = "To be given"
level_list = []
while True:
if level != "":
level = raw_input()
level_list.append(level)
else:
break
level_list.pop(-1)
def printTriangle(level):
for i in range(int(level), -1, -1):
print "*" * i
for x in level_list:
printTriangle(x)
Done. Expect an increase in post frequency now. Phew, the consulate appoinment gave me nightmares.
what are you doing wasting your life listening to the beatles when you could be easily drown yourself in Ilaiyaraaja’s countless gems?