Fountain Pen

Mummy I don’t want to write with fountain pen ‘ Esther said this one day after coming back from school. Esther started writing with fountain from the last term of 4th std, as per the school norms. I had taken time out to look for reasonably good/priced fountain pen. From 10 rupees to 60 rupees I had seen 5-6 varieties of pen and decided on Reynolds 30/- pen reason for my selecting that pen was it has a separate tube for filling ink which ensured that ink wont leak, and it has traditional long nib. Before I gave Esther that pen , I wrote couple of A4 size paper getting nostalgic and decided that even I should buy one for myself, the pen was wonderfully smooth and good to write with …

So I asked Esther why she did not want to write with fountain pen – ‘Nobody in my class uses Ink pen, they all use Ball pen or Hi Tech pens’. Hmmmm … I asked her if teachers allowed them to write with Ball pens ? She said they have never said anything for writing with ball pens … mmmm…. Then I asked her notebooks, looking at her handwriting I was disappointed, though hers is not too good handwriting but it used to be neat , in her notebook it was absolutely messy , she knew what I was thinking (you did not do cursive writing during vacation) but did not say anything … I told her ‘Till your handwriting improves and gets stable , you will write with Ink Pen only and I don’t want to know what pen other children are using’ ‘But mummy …’ She tried to protest , I said I don’t want to hear anything about ball pens till she improves her handwriting .. …

She was still upset about my decision, and I thought probably I should tell her why I want her to use Fountain Pen . I then started telling her how it was for ‘us’ during our school days . I told her that no student was allowed to use ‘Ball pens’ specially from class 5-10th , and though I don’t know the exact reason behind the practice but fountain pens are suppose to be good to improve and stabilize handwriting. She said she tries to write neatly like her friend, she tries to write like me and wants to have handwriting like mine. I smiled at her and said, her - Only after couple of years of writing you will get a stable ‘your own handwriting’ it wont be your friend’s handwriting or mummy’s handwriting, it will be ‘your own handwriting’ and then you can use which ever pen you want to use. I told her - Our time we did not have much options and had leaky, rough nib ink pens we had to use whatever was available , our teachers would not allow us to use ball pen, and one of the proud moment used to be getting a ‘Fountain Pen’ for a gift . She just heard all did not say much, but she was not happy . Next day before going to school , she said she is taking the fountain pen … This happened 2 weeks back …

Yday Esther mentioned that her friend Tara is the only other student who has started using

fountain pen , and hers is small nib pen with a button sort of thing to fill the ink .. .. I was making tea and without looking up I said ‘oh that’s a Chinese pen, in our time students with good handwriting and good marks had that pen, am sure Tara has good handwriting’ and added if her handwriting improves and if she scores well in her term exams I will get her one. Esther admitted that Tara’s handwriting is good and asked me how can I be so sure that it’s a Chinese pen ? I continued my work and said I had and I think its somewhere in my old things . She was all enthu to see that , and asked if I get it can she use ? Yesterday evening Anil found the pen – we smiled, its almost 22 -23 yr old , the shell is cracked, I had kept it stuck with ‘cello tape’ I had written my 10th board exams using that pen, written letters to my friends … A dark maroon with golden cap Chinese pen … Today she took that pen to school …..