Pran was not supposed to be in the computer lab.
Technically.
The sign on the door clearly said:
AUTHORIZED STUDENTS ONLY
Which, depending on your interpretation of the word authorized, could mean many things. For example, maybe it meant students who were curious. Or students who were slightly bored. Or students who had accidentally wandered in while looking for the bathroom.
Pran chose to believe it meant all three.
The room smelled like old electronics and dusty keyboards. A row of ancient computers sat quietly against the wall, their screens dark like sleeping robots waiting to wake up.
Pran pulled a chair and sat down.
"Alright," he said to himself. "Let's see what you can do."
He pressed the power button.
The computer hummed like an old car starting on a cold morning.
Brrrrrrrrrrr.
The screen flickered.
A black window appeared.
White text blinked on the screen like a tiny impatient cursor.
_
The cursor blinked again.
And again.
As if it was saying:
"Well? I'm waiting."
Pran leaned closer.
"I guess… I type something?"
He remembered hearing somewhere that programmers used something called C programming.
Apparently, it was one of the oldest and most powerful programming languages ever created.
Which sounded impressive.
Also slightly terrifying.
But how hard could it be?
He opened a text editor and typed the most mysterious looking line he had ever seen.
#include
Pran stared at the screen.
"Okay… I have absolutely no idea what that means."
But programmers on the internet always started with it, so he assumed it was important.
It looked like a secret code.
Maybe it was a magical spell.
Maybe computers refused to cooperate unless you politely asked them first.
He kept typing.
#include
int main() {
}
Now the screen looked even more mysterious.
He read it slowly.
"Int… main…"
It sounded like the name of a superhero.
Captain Main.
Or maybe Doctor Integer.
But in C programming, main() is something very important.
It is the starting point of every program.
Think of it like the front door of a house.
When the computer runs your program, it always walks through the door called main.
If main() didn't exist, the computer would basically walk around confused saying:
"Hello? Where do I start? Anyone home?"
Pran nodded.
"Okay… that makes sense."
Now he needed to tell the computer to actually do something.
Otherwise the program would just sit there doing absolutely nothing.
Which, to be fair, computers are extremely good at doing if you don't give them instructions.
He typed another line.
printf("Hello world");
He leaned back.
"Alright computer. Impress me."
The full program now looked like this:
#include
int main() {
printf("Hello world");
return 0;
}
Let's break this down.
printf is a command that tells the computer:
Print something on the screen.
The word inside the quotes is exactly what appears.
So:
printf("Hello world");
means:
Computer → show the text Hello world
Very simple.
Very powerful.
Pran compiled the program.
The computer paused.
The fan started spinning louder.
For a moment Pran wondered if he had accidentally launched a missile or something.
Then the screen displayed:
Hello world
Pran blinked.
The computer had spoken.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
But it had answered.
He typed another version.
printf("Hello Pran");
He ran the program again.
Hello Pran
Now the computer knew his name.
Which was both exciting and slightly unsettling.
He decided to experiment.
printf("I like pizza");
Run.
I like pizza
He tried again.
printf("Programming is awesome");
Run.
Programming is awesome
Pran laughed.
"This is actually fun."
You see, programming is simply giving instructions to a computer.
Computers are extremely powerful machines.
But they are also extremely literal.
They do exactly what you tell them.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
If you tell a computer:
printf("Banana");
The computer will happily print Banana.
It will not ask questions.
It will not judge you.
It will not say:
"Are you sure about that banana?"
It just prints banana.
Which is why programmers must be very precise.
One tiny mistake can confuse the computer.
For example, Pran tried this:
printf(Hello world);
He ran the program.
Error.
Lots of errors.
Angry errors.
The computer basically shouted:
"WHAT IS HELLO WORLD???"
Pran quickly fixed it.
printf("Hello world");
The quotation marks are important.
They tell the computer:
"This is text."
Without them, the computer thinks you're talking about variables or something else.
Programming languages are picky like that.
But once you understand the rules, things start to make sense.
Pran typed one more program.
#include
int main() {
printf("Hello world\n");
printf("Welcome to C programming\n");
printf("This is the beginning of your coding journey\n");
return 0;
}
When he ran it, the screen showed:
Hello world
Welcome to C programming
This is the beginning of your coding journey
He noticed something interesting.
The \n made the text go to the next line.
Without it, everything would appear on the same line.
Programming is full of little tricks like that.
Small symbols.
Small rules.
Small commands.
But together they create incredible things.
Operating systems.
Video games.
Artificial intelligence.
Entire worlds inside machines.
Pran leaned back in his chair.
The computer hummed quietly.
For the first time, he understood something important.
Programming wasn't magic.
It wasn't impossible.
It was just learning how to talk to machines.
And he had just said his first word.
The computer blinked the cursor again.
_
Waiting.
Patient.
Silent.
As if it was saying:
"Alright human… what do we build next?"
Pran smiled.
"Let's keep going."