HT Codeathon: Coding – A newfound interest during lockdown

On March 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown. I was happy. No school, no exams, no routine! But my impassive, care-free days soon turned boring. I have always been an outdoorsy type and now I felt shackled by the confinement. Things changed when we received an email about a brief, online coding course. Last year, our computer teacher had introduced us to coding. Under the circumstances, I thought of giving this course a shot to pass the time. What followed later completely transformed my lockdown story.

I learned coding in Advanced Scratch and MIT App Inventor, and designed several games like Snake, Feed the Cat, Maze, Tank War, etc. Enjoying the games I created was such an incredible feeling. I also created an app for my mother to manage her grocery list. Watching my mother use this app motivated me to progress to the next level. I learned different coding languages like HTML, Java, CSS, etc, through Google and YouTube and I have designed my own website on Covid-19.

It gives me immense satisfaction to browse through my creative work online. Coding has helped me remain balanced and active through this lockdown. It has boosted my attention span and concentration levels in these times of virtual learning.

(The contributor is a student of Class 6, St Mary’s School (ICSE), Mazagaon)