PENNING MY THOUGHTS

I was bemused when my friend showed her son's certificate of ‘pen licence’, it was the first I heard the term. She explained that her son’s school, which follows British curriculum, awards each milestone with a certificate and makes it a celebration. Big deal for the kids and parents alike, akin to getting a driving licence or college graduation.

This got me thinking about my school days and the first time we were allowed to use pens, strictly fountain pens only and not these ball point or gel pens which you get for a dime a dozen.

I vaguely remember that somewhere during the 5th or 6th grade I bought my first pen. I posted a message in all my WA groups asking if they remembered their transition to pens from pencils.The answers received were similar to the recent legislative assembly results, with no clear mandate. Some said 4th grade others in 6th grade, a friend explained in 4.5 i.e. in the last term of the 4th grade, another one said 8th grade. He is the kind of guy who provides proof for his answers, like a photo or a newspaper article, he is meticulous I say, so I was waiting for him to come up with one. Hoping to get a clear picture I asked everyone about their kids transition to  pens. Well, not surprised I was thrown all dissimilar answers for this query too.

The fountain pens, I did a bit of googling as always and understood these were invented by a Romanian named  Petrache Poenaru  and was later improvised by Lewis Waterman with a nib and reservoir that doesn’t flood the ink.Trivia mentioned that Waterman lost an important contract due to his leaking pen which prompted him to improve the existing design.

The pencils did have their own charm, the red and black Natraj the floral designed Camlin flora, the Apsara, with grading as H (hard), B (black/bright) and F (fine point). Some had erasers attached to them, some a palm like piece, feathers and such varied things. The games we played as friends cheered on, we tried to get an unbroken floral pattern of the wood shavings while sharpening the pencil (shaving off our fathers hard earned money!)

I was not allowed to use a blade for sharpening the pencils, an overprotected single child, I sat mesmerized as dad used a small pocket knife to sharpen my pencil... haa! those days.

Now coming back to fountain pens, (pardon my digressions) one gets to sport one stylishly on the  shirt pocket, feeling all grown up. Of course there are numerous instances when your pristine white uniform shirt  gets all stained with the royal blue color and you get royal treatment from your mom. There was this friend who loved the ink stains on his hand. Crazy eh!. The ‘Brill ink’ bottle with the filler, a messy job to filling the pen to last through the day.This was not very clean ink and the nib warranted cleaning frequently lest your writing becomes thick and ugly. Chelpark ink was better. Among the fountain pens ‘Hero pen’ was indeed the Hero, manufactured by the Shanghai Hero pen company in China, a status symbol in those childhood days and you develop horns on your head when your friends ask your permission to hold the esteemed pen and write their names with it. Funny happy memories.

The innocence of those days are lost forever. We have come a long way, grown up and all serious now, bogged down by responsibilities of life.  Lets just sit back and ponder on how excited we were at many trivial silly stuff while growing up.

Laugh a lot and develop laugh lines and not frown lines.

PS. I smile at my husband who proudly tucks his Montblanc pen with a sense of style and status into his pocket and sigh at his childish wish to collect more such writing instruments.