Fountain pen to MS Word

I wonder how many of you who stop by to read this, belong to the generation that used the good old fountain pen. As I settled to write again today, I became reminiscent of the days when we were only allowed to use fountain pens to write (in school that is). And that became the habit by default. This was to ensure good handwriting. Then we slowly graduated to using ball point pens and now we have almost done away with the use of pen and paper. While technology has made life simpler in many ways, I still feel writing was much more personal back then. It was a different feeling penning down thoughts on paper, a more leisurely activity. And I am sure we have all had our favourite pens which we wouldn’t trade for anything under the sun. If I happened to lose mine, it would mean more than just the loss of an object. Pens are not as valuable as they used to be; certainly not the fountain pen.

A lot of children these days wouldn’t even know the wonder that it was. If I had to describe it to them this is how it would be – A slightly fatter version of a pen that you see these days; it had to be fed routinely to keep it going otherwise it would create a fuss in the middle of writing something important; a simple procedure at that – open the outer case and dip the nib of the pen in a pot of ink, the colour of your choice. Press the belly and watch how delightfully it sucks till it is full. (This was the part I enjoyed) Put it back in its case and put on its cap. You are now all set to carry the writing tool around. Be gentle while using it. A jerk could leave ink stains on your hand and clothes.

And then, just for fun I did what most of us would do these days – google – to see what that would throw up, and I was quite amused with the dramatic explanation: A fountain pen is a nib pen that, unlike its predecessor the dip pen, contains an internal reservoir of water-based liquid ink. From the reservoir, the ink is drawn through a feed to the nib and then to the paper via a combination of gravity and capillary action. As a result, the typical fountain pen requires little or no pressure to write. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

How many of you are amused at that. Anyway, getting on with what I was saying, what I miss most about it ‘is the ink filling ceremony’ that was the routine every night when I would arrange my school bag for the next day. These were the simple pleasures in life back then. Technology has left us bereft of some of these. It was the last thing I would do before going to bed; a voluntary task I offered to do for anyone who allowed me to. Also, it often became the excuse for running little errands for my brother. When called to do something I didn’t want to, I would retort by saying that I am being kind enough to fill his pen with ink (without being asked to) and he should be happy with that.

As we entered grade 6, we were allowed to discontinue the use of my favourite pen. I became sad because that meant the end of my ‘ink-filling sessions’. It is always difficult to bid farewell to certain habits and addictions. As time went by, I began to appreciate the ball point pens that became my companion for many, many years (through the rest of school and college days) to come till I reached post graduation.

On our very first day, we were told that all assignments submitted must be typed and no hand written assignments would be accepted. Because of time constraints, and constant pressure of meeting deadlines, it was not possible to write on paper and then type it out. So the first time that I sat with a Microsoft Word document open before me, I just stared back at the blank document for a very long time. The screen staring back at me (with the cursor blinking endlessly) was very intimidating to me. Time was short and I had only until the next morning to submit my assignment. I was itching to go back to the comfort of writing on paper. It was an unsettling feeling sitting before the desktop computer. I felt I wasn’t alone. I was being watched over. As if somebody was trying to intrude upon the intricacies within the deep recesses of my mind. Making that start was really difficult. Its similar with people…takes a while to break the ice; someone has to take the initiative. In this case of course I had to and gradually with time it became easier. My personal equation changed - It began to feel like sharing my thoughts with a friend who would be kind enough to check for spelling and grammatical errors as I went along. And now it is almost impossible to write without MS Word document. Who can think of going back to pen and paper and the fountain pen is best forgotten. Things have come full circle!