Diary of a Coder: Vishy's First Day in Coding Class

Today was supposed to be the first awesome day of summer vacation. I had this perfect plan to sleep until noon because I stayed up late last night playing Valorant with my friends. But guess who ruined it? Rony!

Rony's the new kid at school since his dad's in the army, and they move around a lot. He's a nice guy, always appreciates me, and, let's be honest, his lunch box is tastier than the whole class's combined, which is why I became his friend in the first place. But when he mentioned this summer coding camp, I knew there was no way he'd be bringing his lunch box, so I was out.

Somehow, Dad found out about this summer coding camp. And now, guess what? Rony and I are going together.

When I got there, one of Dad's favourite songs was playing—"Summer of '69." And, of course, it had to be the line, "Those were the best days of my life." I really hope this summer turns out to be that good, but let’s be real—It won’t. Then, out of nowhere, I spot this girl in a kurti and blue jeans. Her eyes were like stars and for a second, I was totally frozen. Here’s the thing: whenever I see a pretty girl, I completely forget how to act like a normal human being.

Then the tutor came in. His name is kernel, according to Rony. He looks like one of those cool YouTuber-coder types. A few more students showed up, but I didn't know anyone else.

kernel kicked things off by asking us a question: "Which invention is the greatest of all time?" He gave us four options: a) fire, b) the wheel, c) electricity, d) computers.

For a moment, I was completely stumped. How do you even pick one? They’re all amazing in their own way. I started thinking about each one:
Fire - keeps us warm and lets us cook food.- 

The wheel - makes transportation easier and faster.

Electricity - powers everything from lights to phones.

 Computers - let us do amazing things like play games and watch videos.

But then it hit me—fire wasn’t really invented; it was discovered. It’s always been there; we just figured out how to use it. Like gravity. Newton didn’t invent gravity; he just figured out how it works. It’s not like we were floating around before the word “gravity” existed.

While I was lost in thought, Rati, the girl with braces on her teeth, raised her hand and asked a question that made me doubt myself. She argued that fire is actually an invention, not a discovery. She explained how people can create fire where it doesn’t exist by using things like matches or lighters. She said we’ve learned to control and benefit from it because it was invented, not just discovered.

I was blown away by Rati’s answer. Seriously, how does she know all this stuff? It made me realise just how much I still have to learn.

kernel stepped in before things turned into a full-on debate. "Let’s not get too hung up on whether something is a discovery or an invention," he said. "Just think about what you believe is the greatest. Everyone had their own opinions.For me, it’s the computer. It’s creating an entirely new world for us."But then the kernel dropped some serious knowledge. "If I had to choose," he said, "I’d say electricity is the best invention so far, and we have Benjamin Franklin to thank for that."

Thrilling, sure, but also totally terrifying and probably painful too. I couldn’t help but wonder, could I ever be brave enough to pull off something like that?

Everyone looked surprised when the kernel mentioned the experiment. Then he said, "You all have computers at home, right? But do you really know what a computer can do?"

kernel asked a simple question, and everyone chimed in with their answers—playing games, listening to music, or using programs like Office, Photoshop, and stuff like that. He paused for a moment and said, "Sure, we all use computers for those things. But do you know what programmers use them for?"

Now we were all ears, curious about what programmers actually do. He explained, "For programmers, computers are always running code and saving data. A programmer is the person who makes computers do what we want." That really caught me off guard—I had no idea.

Then Kernel showed us how to open the Task Manager. It’s like a table that shows everything running on the computer. We accessed it by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc on our keyboards.

He also showed us the software running and how much CPU, RAM, and disk space they were using. It was like peeking into the computer’s brain.

While Kernel was explaining everything, one kid suddenly pointed at the screen and asked, “Sir, what’s that traffic signal thing running on your computer? Is it some kind of warning?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself. The “traffic signal” he was talking about was just the VLC player, and I could hear “Summer of '69” playing softly in the background. Kernel explained it to him with a smile, saying, “That’s just VLC, a media player. It’s nothing to worry about.”

Turns out, that kid was still using Windows Media Player at home, completely unaware that there were other options out thereI wanted to ask him about the GPU (that’s Graphics Processing Unit, in case you didn’t know), but before I could even open my mouth, the kernel beat me to it.

He pulled up the Task Manager again, this time focusing on the performance section. “Here’s the GPU,” he said, pointing to a section of the screen. “The GPU is like a supercharged engine for your computer. It handles all the heavy lifting, like playing high-graphics games or editing videos. Over the past decade, people have also been using GPUs for crypto mining—things like Bitcoin and Dogecoin.

Then Kernel tossed out a question about ROM. I glanced around, and yeah, everyone was drawing blanks. Except for this one girl—Tripti. She waved at me before confidently raising her hand. "ROM stands for Read-Only Memory, and it’s a type of memory that stores data permanently," she said with a tone that screamed, “I’ve got this.”

Kernel nodded, impressed. Then he followed up, "Alright, you all know about RAM, hard disks, CPUs, and motherboards in your computers. Tripti, do you know where ROM is located?"

Without missing a beat, she replied, "It’s usually found on the motherboard." =Honestly, she was starting to sound like a total know-it-all. But then Kernel hit her with a curveball: "How does ROM actually work?"

That’s when she froze. Classic case of memorising without understanding, I thought. Kernel stepped in to rescue her, explaining that ROM is vital because it holds the basic instructions a computer needs to boot up. He even mentioned that you could view the ROM program by pressing certain keys during startup—each company has its own boot key, like F2, F8, F9, F11. And get this, Kernel said that knowing how to navigate ROM could even allow you to install an OS on your computer yourself. Imagine the money you could save by doing that when you buy a new PC.

Tripti raised her hand again, asking if smartphones are like computers. Kernel smiled, "Yep, they’re pretty similar," he said. He explained that by pressing the power button along with the volume up or down, you could access the boot section on a phone. And if you tap the build number five times, you unlock a cool feature. “That’s a secret trick that turns you into a developer,” Kernel revealed with a grin.

He then went on to explain how the task manager shows what’s running on your phone and which apps are hogging the memory.

The boy sitting next to Tripti—the one she waved at earlier—was Kalvin, the rich kid. He was holding an Apple Vision headset and wearing an Apple Watch, looking like someone with money. He glanced at Kernel and asked, 'What about Apple products?

Kernel leaned back and replied, "The Mac is like an advanced version of Windows, and the iPhone is a more refined Android, especially from a programmer's perspective. Apple’s just a bit more protective of their OS; they don’t share it like Microsoft or Google do. Sure, Apple was one of the first to innovate with computers and smartphones, but other companies quickly caught on and followed suit. If you’re curious about how it all started, there’s a movie called *Pirates of Silicon Valley* that’s worth watching."I was thinking of Pirates of the Caribbean, but no, it's a different movie.

He continued, mentioning Apple’s new M1 and M2 processors, saying they’re incredibly fast. Then, with a knowing smile, he added, "Even a Tesla isn’t just a car—it’s a computer on wheels. People might think it’s just a car, but with its eight cameras, it’s doing a whole lot more behind the scenes.Kalvin announced to the whole class that the moment a Tesla hits the Indian market, he’s going to buy one. He then turned to Kernel and asked, "Why don’t you have any Apple products?" .

Kernel, with a shrug, simply said, "I earn my own money." The room got quiet for a moment. Then, with a smile and said I have an Ipad, Kernel reminded us about the question he had asked when he first entered the class—what’s the greatest invention or discovery by humans? "At this point in my life," he said, "I’m starting to think it’s money." He then assigned us homework to explore money.

To wrap up the class, Kernel shared a Hindi shayari:
"**Ungliyan yoon na sab par uthaya karo 

 Kharch karne se pehle kamaaya karo

Zindagi kya hai khud hi samjah jaaoge

 Baarishon me patange udaaya karo** (By Rahat Indori )"

These days, it seems like every teacher on YouTube ends their session with a shayari, and honestly, half the time, we have no clue what they’re talking about.
After class, Rony and I bumped into Sumit, a guy from another school. As a group of girls walked by, Tripti waved and said she’d catch up with him at the game. Sumit mentioned she’s from his school but is planning to transfer after the summer.

Kalvin, the rich kid, revved his bike and sped off loudly. Sumit pointed out that Kalvin has all the expensive gun skins in Valorant, and everyone at school wants to play with him. I told him I’m a Gold 3 player, and most people I meet online want to team up with me. But I usually choose to play with girls instead. Rony, on the other hand, doesn’t get to play online games at home, and he seemed pretty bored.

That’s when I remembered Kernel telling us that money is the greatest invention. So, I asked my dad, “Why is money so important?

”He looked at me and said, “Do you know what Batman’s superpower is?”

“I don’t know,” I replied.

With a smile, he said, “He’s rich. Just like Iron Man... and Elon Musk.”

Just like with Kernel’s explanations, I couldn’t quite grasp what my father was trying to say about money. Why couldn’t they just put in a little effort and explain it to me clearly?