Writing

WRITING - the word itself will generate innumerable thoughts, ideas and anticipation. Some would think now I am going to write something about writing skills. Some other will think that this blog would be about different types of writing or writing as a hobby or as a profession. The ideas would be endless. But often when we talk about writing - writing as a skill, hobby, profession or an art, we often forget the most basic form of tool required for it.

Yes, surprisingly, let this blog be dedicated to that poor, slender and humble tool fondly called as PENCIL. It is the first tool that we all held to write, in fact, even before we learnt to write. Not at all glorified, no credits given, this humble fellow kept doing its job - the job of writing that it was destined to do - silently, humbly and with zero expectations.

Though we never noticed its presence, with time it has come a long way. Back in the 80s it was just a pencil thet used to come in black and red stripes. That long, thin wooden case of lead was a synonym of pencil. This was the one with a thick lead in it, and a new one had to be sharpened before use for which there was another little tool with a little blade screwed on a rectangular metal piece called the sharpener. Looked silver and shone when new. The innovative and inventive boys of the class would take the screw out with the edge of a portable scale that was in their pencil boxes. The unscrewing of the tiny screw would separate the blade from the sharpener which they would tie to the edge of may be a pencil or a thin stick with a rubber band and lo! behold! there is a new weapon and of course a new task for the teachers. You mess with him and he can threaten to harm with it. Now looking back, I feel so much of hardwork and dedication must have gone into that process.

For a very long time, we had only one kind of pencil that is with the red and black vertical stripes. Then with passing time, came a competitor - a flora pencil as it was called because of the pretty little pink flowers it had on a white background. This was slightly expensive so you would usually find it in rich pencil boxes only. Time went by, and someone must have thought of colouring the prominently black and red pencil world. Now there were different colours of pencils, different designs for a change from the red-black stripes. There were even cheaper options that looked very pretty too, but as it is said all that glitters is not gold - these cheap ones were supposedly made from raw wood (as we called it) so the lead would break often. You keep sharpening, and it would break again, and there is a vicious cycle only to see that the pencil has reduced to half its size in a day. This is not good news because in the evening when your mother would sit with you to complete your homework and sees how extravagantly you have spent the pencil, you are going to have it. 

At the same time when pencils underwent transformation, so did the pencil's best friends - the sharpener and the eraser were also transformed. From a silver metal sharpener to a plastic one that would come in unimaginable array of colours and won't rust too. The eraser from a simple blue one to white, coloured and scented. The variations in eraser were so many that I have heard someone holds a Guinness Record for his wide collection of erasers. Erasers like flowers, toys, animals, shapes, large, small and the list is incomprehensive. Later we had a joint venture - rubber on one side and sharpener on the other end of a rectangular box. Inventions in this sector were at its peak. Now the length of the pencils doubled - again an expensive affair so most of us would just have to be content by looking at it in some rich hands. Then we had a tiny rubber attached at the back of pencil so that it is portable - pencil and rubber in one. Again a luxury item. We were still dreaming of having one of all those exotic pencils and rubbers and sharpeners some day, just when there was a giant leap in the invention.

This time it was the Pen-Pencil as it was called. As the name suggests, it looked like a pen, but within, in place of refill there was the lead. The back of the pen has to be clicked several times to bring the lead out to the desired length. The back of the pen can be unscrewed and it is a thin sharpener to sharpen the lead. Rich look, easy to use and no more pencil sharpens that you have to trouble yourself to throw it in dustbin. Again, needless to say, rich man's possession - common man's dream. We had offers from our parents to score well in exams and in return we could be rewarded with a Pen-Pencil.

Man searches for comfort always. He has always found ways to make life easier. So why should the Pencil, sharpener and eraser also not be upgraded. The Pen-Pencil's lead used to be thicker that had to be sharpened and many a times would break, so revolution came and the lead was put on a diet. Transformed, now the lead had become thin as a hair and you could write beautifully and no need to sharpen. You just have to click-click the pen and press gently the lead from the front to adjust the length to the desired size. This is the transformed variation of the Pen-Pencil. The only drawback it had is to adjust the lead you have to pause writing to click the pen from the rear end.

Recently, I saw someone writing with a Pen-Pencil, and I realised that what I thought was a revolution is actually a movement. Changes are happening every day. The latest version of this Pen-Pencil has a small button just near the nib area which you click to adjust the length, so the break in writing is just unnoticeable. The proximity of the button saves time that is lost when you stop writing and have to adjust the lead by clicking from the far rear end of the Pen-Pencil.

Indeed, the Pencil and its mates -the eraser and sharpener have come a long way. But whatever changes are done to the outer beauty, the inner beauty still remains its power to write and rule the world!!!

Take care

SRN