Watch your mother in the kitchen
Mother makes pulao. You’ve watched it many times.
What does she do?
- Soak rice in water
- Chop onions, tomatoes
- Heat oil
- Fry the onions
- Add spices
- Mix in the rice
- Add water and cover
- Wait 15 minutes
- Switch off, serve
That’s a 9-step “recipe.”
Think about it: if Mother wrote down these steps on paper, and your little sister read them and did exactly the same thing in the same order, would the same pulao come out?
Yes, it would (if she does each step the way Mother does).
You know what? That’s exactly what software is.
What is software?
Software = a “recipe” written for a computer.
A computer’s brain (CPU) reads these recipes one step at a time, very, very fast. Millions of recipes at once.
Look at the parallel:
| Mother’s kitchen | Computer |
|---|---|
| Recipe (written on paper) | Software / Program |
| Mother (who reads and cooks) | CPU |
| Pots, stove, ladle | Hardware |
| Onions, tomatoes, rice | Input data |
| Finished pulao | Output |
That’s it! Computers aren’t magic. They’re “recipe followers.”
Hardware vs Software
You’ll hear these two words a lot:
- Hardware = what you can touch. CPU, RAM, screen, keyboard, buttons, charger.
- Software = what you can’t touch, but is real. WhatsApp, YouTube, Android, games, songs, this website’s code.
Kitchen analogy:
- Hardware = stove, pan, ladle (touchable)
- Software = recipe (just letters on paper, but they make things actually happen)
Where is software in your phone?
Many places!
🌟 Operating System (OS) = the most important software. Your phone runs Android or iOS. This is “the kitchen boss” - all other software runs under it.
📱 Apps = different software for different jobs:
- WhatsApp = software for talking
- YouTube = software for watching videos
- Maps = software for directions
- Calculator = software for math
- Camera = software for photos
🎮 Games = a kind of app.
💼 Browser (Chrome, Firefox) = software for viewing internet pages. You read Bachaika in a browser.
Open Settings → Apps. You’ll see how many software programs are in your phone. Usually 50 to 200.
Is all software free?
Some yes, some no:
✅ WhatsApp, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube - all free ✅ Android, Windows, macOS - come with the phone/computer (no extra cost) ✅ Bachaika - free 😊
❌ Photoshop (editing), Tally (accounting) - cost money ❌ Some games - “in-app purchase” asks for money
Think about it: if WhatsApp is free, where does it earn money? Answer: some companies earn from your information (data). That means “free” doesn’t always mean truly free. (More on this in the next chapter.)
Who writes all this software?
People. Like you and me.
They’re called programmers or developers. They write in a “language” the computer can understand - called a programming language (like Python, Java, JavaScript).
Think about it: roughly 3,000 people work on WhatsApp. Each one writes a small piece of code. Together they build software that 3 billion people use every day.
And if you want, you can be a programmer too. From your phone. How? (I’ll teach you in a few chapters.)
Try it yourself
- Go to your phone. Settings → Storage → Apps.
- Count how many apps are in your phone.
- Pick three apps you use every day. Think - “if these didn’t exist, what would I do?”
- Now think - someone wrote each of these apps. Maybe a 17-year-old, 5 years ago.
What did you learn?
- Software = “recipe” written for a computer
- Hardware = what you can touch (the body of the phone). Software = what you can’t touch (the phone’s “thinking”)
- Your phone has 50-200 software apps
- The people who write software are called programmers
- You can be one too
Next chapter
So far we’ve talked about one computer. But the real magic happens when billions of computers start talking to each other. That’s called the internet. In the next chapter you’ll learn how your one message goes from Bihar to America in 1 second.
You are not behind. This world is yours.