A maroon pen dipped in Nostalgia

Truest in every sense that I feel when I remember my first pen. A maroon mighty pen with so much promises as to change the entire World, if only time would have stopped for ever then and there. What a World winning feel that was to grip the first pen in my then little hand!!

This is pure nostalgia; I still remember the day my father had presented me with my first PEN…!!!! To be ingenuous …I felt like a rich princess. We started our writing voyage with slender chalk pencils that we got to scribe on black slates. Then we promoted to pencils from second standard. The grey pencil marks and inscriptions still make me feel gloomy though I do not understand the reason. It was a fine Sunny day that I was gifted with my first pen by my father when I was promoted to third standard. I particularly remember that was a Sunny day as I was elated with the brighter prospect of writing ahead than with the grey pencils. It was kind of bright experience for me and that particular day had really suited my beliefs to the ultimatum.

Absolutely truth, it was in my case. With almost a dancing heart I started my journey with that mighty Maroon pen. I was very excited. I can still remember that, I had looked out of the window near my study table and stared outside to the bright morning piece of sky for a long time as I was thinking what to write with my first PEN for the first time. Then I decided to write my name…..what best it could have been to start with? It was a memorable incident in my life……though may be many of you are thinking what so big and exciting thing about it…..right? Many small bits and pieces of life makes one grows. The trip towards the PEN was also a keen wait for kind of growth at that point of time for me. I had been waiting for the moment to hold a PEN in my hand like all other grown up persons around me. I had been reading and heard many a times the phrase that “the pen is mightier then the sword” and I had felt like a real fighter princess holding the PEN in my hand. I was almost prepared to succeed the encounters of words in life and dreamt of becoming a big writer with greater substance. These feelings might have crossed many minds and it may be other way round; this subject may sound really very insignificant for so many persons. But to my personal part that was one very fond moment of my early life.

The special Pen was a bright maroon color ‘wing chang’ pen with a golden color cover where it was inscribed as ‘made in China’ with which I dreamt about winning the world ahead. That is still the most elegant pen for me and will be always, while to my utmost grief I had lost it during the journey of life. It had been always the greatest loss for me. Still I remember the sad day when I discovered that I am no longer the proud owner of my beloved pen and it was after my Class X boards exam. I had felt at a loss, totally heart broken when I discovered that I had misplaced it. But then I decided to write an obituary for my beloved and most adored PEN. It had a hooded nib and squeeze ink filler. Still the feel of the special texture in my hand of that exclusive maroon pen is very much in attendance. From the quill and ink pot to the different forms of ink pen with different techniques, the journey of pens since the inception is very interesting. Now also many persons with greater monetary power believe that signing any document of value with a very antique or costly branded pen matters a lot. There are many different types of pens like fountain pen, ball point pen, roller ball pen, marker pen, gel pen etc. Some people have a great hobby of collecting pens of high brands. Few very costly brands of pens are mentioned bellow:

• Omas Phoenix Platinum – Fountain Pen Luxury Limited Edition with Diamonds
• Visconti – The Forbidden City H.R.H. Fountain Pen
• The Caran d’Ache “1010″ Foundation Pen – $19,000
• The Four Season Pen – 36,000
• Mont Blanc Star Pen – $ 150,000
• Prince Rainier III Limited Edition 81 Pen – $256,010
• The Papillon Pen – $230,410
• The Fountain Pen – $256,010
• The La Modernista Pen – $265,000
• The Gotica Pen – $406,453
• The Mystery Masterpiece Pen – $730,000
• Visconti – Ripple H.R.H. Fountain Pen

The middle finger of my right hand still has the slight shady stain which had been made by that pen during many wakeful nights for the plentiful preparations, never-ending practices of calculations and my other school subject matters. In actuality my right hand index finger and middle finger had taken a slight different form for my continuous writing habits although can be seen after a very minute observation only. That particular pen was my recurrent company in the preparation to grow in this world for life ahead.

Now I can really recollect in vivid nostalgia that it was a pure love affair for me to the maroon pen. And thus I started my writing drive first in my native language at a very tender age when I was in my fourth standard. Of course that was a poetry lost in the process of aging and growing up mind. And yes the many images I used to adorn my back pages of every notebook. I used to draw pictures mainly of girl faces. That was time slowly I was nurturing my love for reading and writing. Writing with that maroon pen was joy for me in those childhood days. The pristine smooth strokes and the expressions in words with a jovial freedom was my liberation for the soul that time.

My handwriting was not good though as I was more inclined to express my thoughts. I was always after speed to express. It felt as if I was always in short of time and I had to tell so many things. Some times to be honest I did not understand my own writings. I was very fast in taking notes in my classes. I still remember taking many extra pages to complete my exam answer sheets as I always used to write too fast. The cleanliness and the presentation were always important in every exam I took in my growing up days. Very particularly we used to remember our friend’s hand writings. It used to be quite a thrill to receive those hand written letters from our many friends who used to stay in different towns.

I presented same kind of ‘wing chang maroon pen’ to my son to repeat the gallantry. To my utter happiness I have found that kind of same pen to gift to my son. But though I can’t blame time, my son was never interested to celebrate that pen and lost it with time. The ink pot is still lying somewhere in the store area all covered with thick dust to my dismay. But I do not force anything on anybody. The natural succession of things and emotion is what I look for and thus I can’t make my son to feel the happiness with small things like this. Time has changed and changed so much. Now this Gen Z is happier with gadgets and many other different things than us. Even I am more used to laptop keyboard, mobile keypad than a pen to be honest. The creative process has undergone a sea change indeed. But I am happy to see at least my son enjoy expressing through writing and reading books. That is one very precious thing for me, touchwood!!

To express with pure freedom is the blessing if one has the capacity to feel it within. It depends on the wish although and the idea varies from person to person. For a naysayer about writing skill, the pen or papers do not seize any value. But I still crave eternally to feel the grip of the pen between my fingers and scribe many emotions to fill the blank pages. Yes I still miss the pen very much. No matter, to write in a laptop is much easier than to write on papers with a pen. To edit is a total new exercise to write the same thing with new way may be with differed words. But the natural trend and the process with the feel of satisfaction one can draw is what will completely lack in case of the way we now write in systems. Nevertheless the hand written charisma will always be lost with the advent of many gadgets with time.

In the folds of my gossamer nostalgia that ‘maroon wing chung pen’ holds an exceptional place always and I miss it very much. With many loving memory I remember it to be the source of outlet to let flow different emotions of pieces of happiness and sadness equally. Goodbye my buddy, of many lonely hours to make life richer with your kind presence, miss you really ‘maroon wing chung pen’.