why is my hash being weird??

[pycraze]

Hi  ,

   I am using Fedora Core -3  and my Python version is 2.4 .
   kernel version -  2.6.9-1.667smp
  There is some freakish thing that happens with python hashes when i
run a python script
  my python file is  basically :

      myhash = {}
      def summa():
            global myhash
            myhash[0] = 0
            myhash[1] = 1
            myhash[2] = 2
            myhash[3] = 3

   i run a C file :
                 main(int argc, char **argv)
                 {
                         int i = atoi(argv[1]), j;
                        printf("myhash = {}\n");
                        printf("def summa():\n");
                        printf("      global myhash\n");

                        for (j = 0; j < i; j++)
                        printf("    myhash[%d] = %d\n", j, j);

                         printf("\nsumma()\n");
                   }

      and the output of this .c file is redirected to a  .py file.
  I do the following Steps to the .c file to create the  .py file

    1 cc -o s s.c
    2  ./s (input)  >>test.py
    3  python test.py
When i run python to this .py file  , i find that this process eats
lots of virtual memory of my machine.  I can give u detailed examples
to what heights can the virtual memory can go  , when i do a top  ,
with the inputs given to the c file

  1.   input is 100000                 VIRT is 119m
  2.   input is 300000                 VIRT is 470m
  3    input is 700000                 VIRT is 1098m
  4    input is  1000000              VIRT is  1598m

 where  VIRT - virtual memory

              m  -  MB  ( Mega Bytes)

            these results are very alarming as it means that each
hash[i] requires 1 KB of space approx .

    I would like to know why and how to solve this problem ?

   I also did try change the above .c file , so that the new  .c file
will have multiple functions that divide the load of building the hash
structure. Then again the results are same

    Pls do assist me with this problem of mine !!!