---
date: '2019-10-15'
subtitle: 'Pretty fun weekend, I''d say'
title: 'PyCon India 2019 wrap-up'
url: 'pycon-wrap-up'
---

I'm writing this article as I sit in class, back on the grind. Last
weekend---Oct 12th and 13th---was PyCon India 2019, in Chennai, India.
It was my first PyCon, *and* my first ever talk at a major conference!
This is an account of the all the cool stuff I saw, people I met and the
talks I enjoyed. Forgive the lack of pictures---I prefer living the
moment through my eyes.

Talks
-----

So much ML! Not that it's a bad thing, but definitely interesting to
note. From what I counted, there were about 17 talks tagged under "Data
Science, Machine Learning and AI". I'd have liked to see more talks
discussing security and privacy, but hey, the organizers can only pick
from what's submitted. ;)

With that point out of the way, here are some of the talks I really
liked:

-   **Python Packaging - where we are and where we're headed** by
    [Pradyun](https://twitter.com/pradyunsg)
-   **Micropython: Building a Physical Inventory Search Engine** by
    [Vinay](https://twitter.com/stonecharioteer)
-   **Ragabot - Music Encoded** by
    [Vikrant](https://twitter.com/vikipedia)
-   **Let's Hunt a Memory Leak** by
    [Sanket](https://twitter.com/sankeyplus)
-   oh and of course, [David Beazley](https://twitter.com/dabeaz)'s
    closing keynote

My talk (!!!)
-------------

My good buddy [Raghav](https://twitter.com/_vologue) and I spoke about
our smart lock security research. Agreed, it might have been less
"hardware" and more of a bug on the server-side, but that's the thing
about IoT right? It's so multi-faceted, and is an amalgamation of so
many different hardware and software stacks. But, anyway...

I was reassured by folks after the talk that the silence during Q/A was
the "good" kind of silence. Was it really? I'll never know.

Some nice people I met
----------------------

-   [Abhirath](https://twitter.com/abhirathb)---A 200 IQ lad. Talked to
    me about everything from computational biology to the physical
    implementation of quantum computers.
-   [Abin](https://twitter.com/meain_)---He recognized me from my
    [r/unixporn](https://reddit.com/r/unixporn) posts, which was pretty
    awesome.
-   [Abhishek](https://twitter.com/h6165)
-   Pradyun and Vikrant (linked earlier)

And a lot of other people doing really great stuff, whose names I'm
forgetting.

Pictures!
---------

It's not much, and I can't be bothered to format them like a collage or
whatever, so I'll just dump them here---as is.

![nice badge](/static/img/silly_badge.jpg) ![awkward
smile!](/static/img/abhishek_anmol.jpg) ![me
talking](/static/img/me_talking.jpg) ![s443 @
pycon](/static/img/s443_pycon.jpg)

C'est tout
----------

Overall, a great time and a weekend well spent. It was very different
from your typical security conference---a lot more *chill*, if you will.
The organizers did a fantastic job and the entire event was put together
really well. I don't have much else to say, but I know for sure that
I'll be there next time.

That was PyCon India, 2019.