THE PEN

 THE PEN

 

Please do not get annoyed over my Saturday topics. Yes, I try recalling items that were viewed with a sense of longing. Children of the present times may not even accept my previous statement. Yes, pen was a tool to look for by children below the stage of V standard, as use of pen was permitted from VI standard up. Till then it was pencil –paper [notebook,] as amendments of spelling or arithmetic sums could be corrected by erasing the erroneous part with an eraser [rubber] and the right one scribed after removing the error. The ‘forbidden state’ of using a pen, worked up desire in children to write using a pen, well before the act was permitted in schools. Children did not realize the true advantage of pencil because , without losing a page, things could be learned by several repeat writings – a silent method of improving the learners’ curiosity for correct writing and progressive  improvement of eye-hand co-ordination that varies among children; some children  have the skill of  mirror-image scribing of letters B,C, R , N and sometimes ‘S’. Adults would find it hard to male ‘mirror-image looks of those alphabets.  The mirror-imaging pattern in writing is neither deliberate nor a reckless act, but the one in which the brain of the child guides to scribe so, as if it  what the child notices.  It would be  pertinent to recall how in the early days of our college phase our diagrams/ labels were improper, as we did not bestow the keenness essential for learning anatomical structures, their names and spelling –as prescribed in those lessons. Only when such errors are marked by the teachers, the learner realizes his/her folly or inattentive approach to such aspects. Needless- to re-iterate our inadequacy in technical terms, as they were, less familiar and the least understood by us then. So much to recall on our attitude to critical domains of knowledge, as learners at various stages.  The use of pencil in lower classes, did provide occasions to streamline our approach of caution and minimizing of spelling errors, as otherwise making corrections would eat into our time meant for activities like reading drawing diagrams and compiling our observed data/ features –as a part of our laboratory exercises.

Please do not fear that I have lost track of ‘the pen’. No, we are back to it. The history of the historic pen is replete with its own trends of evolution, keeping all the time the focus on ‘elegance of writing’. What has a pen to do with elegance of writing can be a ready poser. Well, elegance of writing refers to 2 components –1 the idea and 2 the form and shape of letters arresting the attention of all readers. The second component pertains to size shape and form of all letters in a uniform dimension –a reflection of seriousness on the part of the writer.

So, the priority moves on to ‘the pen’ that lends itself for use in all forms of line continuity, even as the letters stand in alignment in cursive writing. Cursive writing if not rendered with keenness, can turn a curse by itself.  What makes writing a pleasure –is simply the consummate ease with which the pen smoothly moves on the writing surface in uniform flow of ink and presents a steady thickness of all lines and letters. That obviously has been the contribution of the  writing tip of the tool-the ‘nib’.  Most nib makers/ sellers used to claim that the nib has ‘iridium tip’.  The belief was that the tip would stand the rigours of writing as it has a toughened tip to  survive pages of writing over a year or two.  The nib and the clip on the cap were only the metal components of a pen; the rest were mostly plastic or polyester /fibre tubes named the barrel to hold ink in sufficient volume to last for a few days of exhaustive writing. Such a pen was named “the fountain pen”.  The barrel was the reservoir of ammunition ‘the ink’.  To facilitate filling ink to the barrel, a top point was the neck fitted by several threads of knurling. A few sophisticated brands had a suction piston at the tail end closed by a lid to present the looks of a standard barrel. The nib fitment was at the free end of the neck, held firm in place by a grooved tongue-like flattened piece[the feeder] holding the nib in place. The fitting is quite snug and offers a steady ink flow for writing.. The feeder has grooves permitting seepage of ink between the nib and itself The tip of the nib ’draws’ the words as scribed by the writer. A general opinion in those days  , dexterous use of fountain pen will slowly condition the quality of handwriting , especially –the cursive form of writing

To continue…