Seriously Emotional – My Fountain Pen Story :)

It’s been a while since my daughter is attending her classes online.

Over the years, I haven’t had many opportunities to watch her studies closely. A couple of weeks ago, I dropped in to her study area and found a bunch of gel pens in her pen stand… Out of curiosity, I asked, “Which gel pen do you use regularly?” she promptly replied, “Whichever I feel like on that day”. Needless to say, all the pens were from similar manufacturers, easily available in the nearby stationery shop. Further, I  looked into her pouch in the cupboard and  could easily see more than 30 pens from multiple brands. All these pens come from different sources – some we as parents buy them for her, some a gift from family and friends ,the complimentary pens I  get whenever I attend any conference (the welcome kit) When I asked “Don’t you use fountain pens?” she replied “The fountain pen is messy, Appa! The ink leaks sometimes. My teacher recommended us to use the gel pen”. Her reply brought some wonderful memories of my schooldays. 

Thirty years ago, when I was in school, there was no concept of gel pen. We only used fountain pens.   Normally,  I used to buy it at the beginning of the academic year. Camelin, Natraj or Flair were the brands I preferred, often ending  up using the same fountain for many years. Having a Hero pen, that too with the arrow mark near the nib, was considered a privilege.  Very few students or teachers used to have them. 

The fountain pen was more than a writing instrument for me. There used to be a strong emotional connect. Whenever I bought  a new fountain pen, I used to spend days together seasoning it. Clearing the dust in the writing area, regular washing, using the same ink brand,  holding it in a particular angle to get the best handwriting were followed with ritualistic fervor. Eventually, the ink pen becomes a priceless possession. I used to protect it very much as it would  get stolen or the nib (whose seasoning for smooth writing was a painstaking and loving affair) broken on purpose by some mischievous boys of my class. When such incidents happened, I was heartbroken. It is not the matter of buying another new pen, but the effort and time that is spent towards seasoning it. Getting back the same writing flow used to take months. I also used to have seasoned spare nibs, Ink bottles, Ink filler as a part of my ‘Fixing Kit’. I used to be superstitious about which shop I should buy the ink bottle from, so I would get better marks in my exam.  In summary, ink pens are an emotional affair.

The same goes with writing pad, geometry box, sketch pens, watercolor box, paint brush and many more stationery items.  Lesser number of choices has always resulted in higher emotional connect. In today’s world, when I walk into any stationery shop, choices are aplenty, that too at a super affordable price.  For example, a good quality gel pen costs 10 rupees and its refill costs 4-5 rupees, which is really amazing!  The child inside me wakes up  and gets excited when I visit a stationery shops these days. 

One of these weekends, I took my family on a long drive and incidentally this fountain pen story popped up. My wife immediately got excited, and she started adding more childhood anecdotes. On the other hand, my daughter who was sitting in the back seat screamed,  “Can you stop talking about the pen story? I’m getting bored”. For a minute, both  my wife and I got surprised, but quickly realized why she is not able to connect with this fountain pen story. Hers is a digital first, globalized world where the sources and choices of information are available in abundance and  the emotional connect is almost non-existent in anything that she does, and she just sees them as regular things, be it pen or a writing pad.

I wonder if having an emotional connect with a pen, something that was really precious to me, giving an enormous amount of joy and happiness during my childhood was foolish? Should I laugh at myself, like my daughter often does, or maybe feel sorry for her because she is missing out on the joy of having an emotional attachment to an inanimate object because of the multitude of choices she has? Are we getting far away from a proper connection (human or otherwise) as we  progress?  

I will leave the  choice to you. I am open to hear your stories as well.