I would call it serendipity. How else could a cryptography meet-up occur in the beloved port city of Kochi exactly on the eve of a previously scheduled family function for which I was already heading out for?
The language of 1’s and 0’s has never ceased to inspire to me. The meet-up presented an opportunity that I had never had, to discuss the art of writing or solving codes with like-minded folks connected by a common thread – love for all things bits and bytes.
With the speed of time at one second a second, it finally came down to that second when my eyes caught hold of the name board ‘Café carpentine’ – a shy, unassuming café hidden from all the hustle and bustle of the city but right in its heart of hearts, resonating with vibrancy and joy. I was so excited that my subconscious drew parallels between the venue and the theme because cryptography in its essence is unassuming, apparently hidden, but dynamic enough to contain information that could radically alter the course of events.
As I entered the café , my thoughts of Caesar and his cipher were disrupted by the tantalising aroma of chocolate, then coffee, then both. It would have been a typical ‘smell-leads-the-way-to-stomach’ episode if not for the question “Hey, Are you here for the meet-up?”
I sat down, and luckily the spot I took offered a perfect view of the arranged saccharine delights just like the elementary components of a block cipher. After a one-minute introduction of self and interests, the thought conflux began. I could feel the goosebumps kicking in when a security consultant started with the story of a young Englishman named Alan Turing, hailed as the father of Artificial Intelligence, who single-handedly helped the Allies defeat the Germans by cracking the Nazi Enigma code. Then a few hobbyists talked about their trysts with bitcoin mining and blockchains. A startup team threw light on encryptions used by messaging platforms. I shared findings from an article on how denial-of-service (DOS) attacks could almost cripple life in the Internet-of-Things era.
Our grey cells were seized of malwares and ransomwares, but occasional cupcake-coffee breaks helped calm us down. As I walked out of the café more enlightened and aware, I carried back with me some amazing memories.
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