It was around 11:00 am of 24th March and I got to know from a newsfeed that there was this AI Braindump happening in Bangalore that day. I scrolled down a bit and found that this event was going to be joined by many AI enthusiasts, and experts like Marc Canter would be offering their piece of braindump. At this point, I was in a quandary whether should I go to Bangalore or not as I really wanted to glean the information out of braindumps. A number of thoughts were drowning me in and finally I thought to give it a try I mean seriously it would be amazing cause that is what the typical thing I do. Now, If you’ll ask a guy from Chennai to commute to Bangalore you will get to know that it needs at least 8 hours. And, somehow the time ran faster when I was busy dilly-dallying. I realized that it was around 01:00 pm and I needed to move my numb feet soon. I tried to book a bus which should depart by 02:30 pm and should drop me by 08:30 pm, but I was unable to find a bus at this typical timing. I contacted the helpdesk of AI Braindump and explained my situation that I might get a bit late to reach there by 15-20 minutes and he told that it would be okay as they would start the talk by 09:20 pm.
Next thing that I did was booking a cab from my residence to Koyembedu bus stop as I was okay finding any bus from Chennai to Bangalore after reaching there. The most awkward and typical things happen when you make sudden plans and such situations didn’t disappoint me this time around too. I tell you, my journeys are never so easy there is something which always makes these journeys full of thrill and adventure. As I was sitting comfortably in that cab and the cab was moving towards Koyembedu, I realized that I had limited amount of cash money in my pocket and I might need to pay for the bus ticket in cash amount. so, to save the cash I thought to pay the cab driver through online mediums and there you go, the payment page was showing errors. I tried a number of other apps but heck nothing was working. it was already 02:30 pm and I reached the bus stop and the cab driver was looking at me for the cash amount. I told him to drive me to nearest ATM so that I could pay him the amount with the extra amount if he wanted. he obliged and there you go again we drove to three nearby ATMs and none was working. I had no option but to pay him the cash amount of around 450 INR and I had only 300 INR left in my pocket. I reached the bus stop and asked the guy about bus and the last bus at that time was around the corner leaving the bus stop as he told me I went straight running there. I asked the guy about the price of the bus ticket and it was 700 INR, “oh fish!!”. I told him that I could pay him at the later point in time in journey if he could stop the bus near an ATM. “Jump in the bus” as he told me I was happy that at last, I could take some deep breaths. The bus departed from Chennai and I was thinking about all the things that why sometimes you think a lot when you make a sudden plan and trust me I am the king of spontaneity. Near Vellore, the bus conductor came to me and told me to get down as they stopped the bus especially for me so that I could pay them in cash amount. I got down and saw there was no ATM and came back to bus conductor, he told me that I needed to walk towards a hotel where there is an ATM. I walked up to that ATM and transacted a cash of 2000 INR. I came back and paid the price of the bus ticket and was happily back on my journey.
I was a heck irritated by this error, the payment page of almost every app was showing me error issues. I sat down and searched a bit and found that most of my apps were opening the payment page using “Android System Webview”. And, here was the issue my phone memory remains always full so rarely any app gets updated automatically and I didn’t update any app in a while so the underlying app was outdated. So, none of my apps was working for payment. I found the issue and solved it within next 5 minutes and was feeling happy. meanwhile, I started looking for all the speakers and their braindump topics. I had studied machine learning from prof. andrew Ng on Coursera, but the discussion topics were a bit different. anyway, I was expecting a lot to learn. I took a power nap as I knew that the braindump would go until midnight.
it was around 08:25 pm and we entered in Bangalore. I was happy that at the end I reached at the time but hell no I was wrong again. near the electronic city, I realized that why Bangalore’s traffic is so much famous. we were moving at snail’s pace and time was running fast. it became 08:45 pm soon and I couldn’t see any real movement in that bus’s location. so, I thought to ditch the bus for a cab as it could find an alternate route easily than this lethargic iron box. I got down on silk board and the time was 08:55 pm and within next 5 minutes I had to reach 91Springboard. I booked a cab and I felt relaxed for next 2 minutes until I realized the cab wasn’t moving on tracking map and soon it started running away from my location. I was really annoyed by this cab driver I called him twice and he didn’t pick it up and in next attempt, he told me to cancel the cab. I was livid at that moment but couldn’t do anything while the clock ran past 09:00 pm. I hired an auto for almost one half of the price as he didn’t want to go in that area. Sometimes when I want to do something from my heart I do it at any cost and this time it was no different. I sat in that auto rickshaw and the driver drove me to 91Springsboard and thank god, I reached there by 09:17 pm. A guy in the black hoodie was smoking a cigarette outside and was looking like a punk geek, I asked him about the event. I ran toward the event by using stairs and there it was. People were sitting in the hall and listing to the conversation taking place. I took a seat and was happy that I reached there before the actual braindump started.
This braindump was attended by many AI enthusiasts, makers and few experts including Marc canter (known as the godfather of multimedia). Discussions covered several AI topics such as Decoupled neural nets, fictional vs. factual data and utilizing Chatbots as a distribution system, GANs, and Julia in ML.
At the end of this braindump at probably 03:10 am, I felt that the efforts I put into to make it happen really paid off. I interacted with many AI enthusiasts, startup founders and made few friends. Moreover, the real motive to understand the industry focus on AI was more clear than before and I got the subject in my hand so that I could read it on my own. The project that I want to make really need the core AI support and this braindump exactly gave me what I needed that was expert bits of advice.
I took a cab at around 03:30 am and left the venue. This was it. 🙂 🙂