Post Back: PROCOM.net 2008

It all started in our point. I had come back after volunteering at our second PROCOM. My friend, Nazia, asked me to give her the problem set and after going through it she was confident that she could have solved some of the problems. And she wanted me to make a team with her for the next PROCOM. Though I wasn't confident myself that I would be able to do anything good, but I still had no good reason to say no to her, so just for the sake of it I said Yes. And this turned out to be a very good decision, as the next year as PROCOM's internal programming competition was near Nazia asked me again, as I had already said no and, therefore, she was relying on me I couldn't say no to her now, and I thought "How worse can it be. Let's sign up, practice and then sit in the competition". After I agreed we had to look for a third member and I chose Sundus, Nazia agreed to it too. We only got a little time for practice, but still we did practice. We would sit together and solve the questions of past competitions.
Let me tell what actually happens in a programming competition. In such competitions you are given a problem set that may contain around 8 questions, and you have a time limit during which you are supposed to solve maximum questions possible. You solve it of course by making computer programs. The winners are decided on which team submitted the most questions and the time of submission. Plus, there is a penalty thing, if you first submitted a question and it was wrong then you submit it again, you are penalized for it.
So we practiced all we could. Nazia and I would sit in the point, where we wouldn't have a computer to check our solutions but we'll still come up with a logic together. The most important thing in such competitions, besides your ability to program and come up with logics, is how good you are as a team. Only one computer and one problem set is given to each team. And the victory depends on how well you utilize the scarce resources. It would all be too easy with three computers, but what makes it challenge able is how you deal with it using only one computer. If two of the group members get a logic at the same time, who would use the computer, and what would the other member do in the meantime. It all depends on the strategy you design. Ours has always been split the questions, each person would start with one question, ask for help from other members if needed, and then when she comes up with a solution, she can start using the computer.
So it all started with that PROCOM internal programming competition. All of us signed up for the competition as well as for volunteers.
And when I was in the internal competition, it felt so good, that after that all three of us longed for a programming competition to participate in. It felt sooooo good participating in a programming competition, being there, doing it... aahhh!
Khair anyways, as I said it all depends upon the strategy you design and also on the decisions you make on spot. Like in this internal competition, Nazia and I had come up with a logic together. As the computer wasn't free I started writing the program on paper, when I got the computer and finally wrote the program I got some errors, while I was trying to solve them Sundus said I am done with one more questions. And Nazia and I asked her "See we have very little time, are you confident that you'll do it, you'll write the program and it would run perfectly" and somehow, she got the guts and confidence to say "Yes" and we gave her the computer, which turned out to be a very good competition. As she sat there typing the program, Nazia and I helped her but only a little, teeny weeny bit, and it worked, we submitted the program. And then after the competition we were confident that we have lost, that we won't be able to participate in the external PROCOM as the first two teams from the internal are the ones which go to the external.
The results were to be announced in the auditorium, I was a bit down knowing we wouldn't win but still I thought we should make the most of it and so I told Nazia that we'll hoot for every team no matter if we do or don't know them and that's what we did. And then the time came for the announcement of winners of internal programming competition, the first was a team from our batch but section b the second was a seniors team the third was a team from our section, we hooted for all the teams and so I hooted for the team that came fourth as well and after a second I reaized "Wait a minute, she said Synergy, isn't that our team" and that was a great great feeling. Although we were fourth but still yaar it was our first competition and we came fourth.
And that competition got us rolling, after that we tried to participate in any programming competition we could.

This was all a lot of history.
Let's get the point now: PROCOM 2008
So this was our last PROCOM, we had to win it. But before we could win the external we had to win the internal competition. And it wasn't just Programming competition only, we wanted to submit our Final Year Project Blog Digger as well. We got selected for the software competition, our FYP Coordinator evaluated our project which had no interface, none at all, all the modules were running separately, but they were running fine, so she just ordered us to integrate them make a good interface and we are in!
But for the programming competition we had to win the internal. I had collected a lot of programming questions from the internet for practice. But we didn't get time to practice either individually or as a team. Of course, you don't have much time on your hands with FYP going on.
So we just practiced a bit, only one or two questions. Sundus and I stayed back on a Friday to practice. And then we set in the internal competition. After the competition we were in HRM's class, discussing whether we would loose or win, we didn't have our hopes high, and not really concentrating on what was being taught. In the HRM break, we went off to find Farooq, programming competition department's co-head. We found him at schon, and we shouted from above, asked him the results, he said "You people are third, a freshie team beat you yaar" I guess he was trying to embarrass us but we continued "so we are third, how many teams are going in the external" I knew universities other than ours were allowed three teams so how many from ours? and he said "Three teams"
Us: "So we are going?"
Him: "Yes. But a freshmen team beat you....."
Oh we weren't interested in that, we were just happy we won. That was another good day. I half ran, half-walked back to the class room and shouted "Sundus..... hum jeet gaye". Never mind the teacher, never mind the other students just saying "hum jeet gaye" I also dropped my teacher's papers on the way and reluctantly stopped to pick them up before I could go to Sundus.
The days passed.... without us practicing.
And finally the day came when on the next day we had PROCOM, but still we were celebrating Cheap Day and a company had come for taking Job Hiring Test. I dressed up as cheap, bunked the job hiring test so that we can make our software ready for the competition.
And then it was PROCOM Day 1.
That day we were also getting our promised scholarships. The parents of the students getting the scholarships were also invited. My parents came along with my sister. And what were we doing before the ceremony started, Sundus and I were in the lab, completely engrossed in her laptop, because the software that worked perfectly before (at least it was perfect by our standards) stopped working, errors were sprouting up every now and then and we were sorting them out, also waiting for the ceremony to start. Any ways, we got the scholarships finally. And as our software wasn't working as it should Sundus and I decided that as the programming competition's first day is just the practice session we should not attend that and be at the software competition. When I told this to Nazia I could tell by her face that she was really angry on us but she still agreed.
In the software competition too we both were trying to make the software work, people came up to us so that we can give them a presentation and we would say "Can you come later". And then though we haven't really gotten rid of all the errors we were forced to give the presentation, how long can the judges be asked to wait anyways? We gave our presentation one after the other. We got comments like "A very good idea, but the work is only initial". We tried to convince them that we have done everything possible. We got some good hints, tips and tricks like "Sell your product...."
The day ended, it started with a feeling of despair (with the software not working) and ended with a feeling that "we did okay in the software competition but what would we do in the programming competition tomorrow?"
The next day, PROCOM Day 2, I was relieved to find out that all the judgments for the software competition had been tomorrow, the software competition head had the results in his hands when he told me about the judges thing but of course he wasn't allowed to tell me the results. Now we can go for the programming competition without worry about the software competition.
HMMM.... sitting in that programming competition finally, sitting in external PROCOM Programming Competition for the first time. It started..... and then it ended, without us doing anything productive. We knew as soon as the competition ended that we have lost it, that we have missed our first and last chance to win PROCOM Programming Competition.
With long faces we left the lab and went towards the software competition lab to find out that amazingly the rest of our team wasn't there, Sundus's laptop had vanished with them. And we were worried and angry at the same time "yeh loog kahan chalay gaye?" And when we found one of them she said "Rafi bhai ne aa ke kaha hai yeh project hatao yeh laiq hee nahi hai software competition ke liye". And Sundus and I just stood there, trying to contemplate the possibility of her just trying to scare or her telling us what really happened.
Finally she said herself "I am just kidding.... We are third...." *Wide Wide smiles*
So it was a mixed feeling.... relief and joy at winning software competition, and disappointment at loosing the programming competition, the competition we had been trying to win for a long time.
I commanded my software team not to go before the results were announced. I wanted the entire team to go up there on the stage when our names were announced..... that turned out to be the wishful thinking of the century... Third positions weren't announced for any competition.
The anchor started with the software competition results... but started with the second position. Another disappointment.
Another reason to have long faces.
Any ways the day ended.
At least we came third, though even nobody at our university knew about it besides us and the people who had direct access to the results and those were few.
So we had some unknown, anonymous victory (can third position be called victory? :P)
The day ended, another chance lost, another experience gained.
We had TechElite to look forward to. Which happened to be on the very next day.