The Nth Encounter

It's been ages after the first encounter. Changed schools. Moved to a new school that doesn't care about computers. That love story ended more quickly than I thought and there's nothing much I could have done about it.

Years passed by. Back to cramming subjects for marks. Somehow, that cramming got me some good marks in school and parents were happy about it. Those good marks convinced my parents to get a computer. But by that time, I was over that first love story long ago (being curious how computers work) and was more interested in playing GTA Vice City, the second love story (playing games). What else a computer is good for if not for playing games (at least that's what I thought so back then).

That daily play quickly became boring and not that exciting. I always wanted to do automobile engineering, for the love of cars. But that cramming for marks during school years didn't really help me in getting to do what I always wanted and had to settle for Computer Science (by this point I almost forgot about my first encounter).

A Weekend, family gathering, was at my relatives place, playing Midtown madness on PC. Took turns playing the game with my brother. During that break, with nothing else to do, I started reviewing the bookshelf (love of books though never left me, though I don't consider myself an avid reader yet). Something caught my attention while browsing the bookshelf. "Let Us C" by Yeshwanth Kanetkar. I have no clue what it is about and I still wonder why it caught my attention. May be the title, like lets us see into the others, Haha. They let me borrow the book. Them or myself little did know that this is going to change my life. This is how it all re-started.

I went through the book, reading it line by line, digesting each chapter, solving any exercises/problems that I can find in these chapters. The thing that I've missed the most once I'm done reading the book is doing those exercises. It felt like playing a game, solving a puzzle. I wanted more of that experience. Then found another book, did the same, but this time have skimmed through chapters quickly and focused on exercises. Realised, this isn't enough if I want to keep solving these problems all day. After multiple attempts of "Google" search, found a site called SPOJ. I was ecstatic. It was one of the best moments of my life, seeing all the huge list of problems that are ready and waiting to be solved.

Soon this became an addiction. No more staying till 4am in the morning playing Vice City, but solving a problem from CodeChef contests. No more listening to music on the way to college, but quickly scribbling a problem in my notes and keep thinking about it all the way on the bus. No more paying attention to classes because I was busy solving or thinking about these problems.

Days and Nights passed by..

Commute to College passed by..

College classes passed by..

Weekends passed by..

Summer Holidays passed by..

Little did I realise then time moves so fast. Love is back in my life. It's not as same as my first encounter. It's way more than that.