I was gifted my first fountain pen in class 5 standard. Before that, I used to pray every evening for a fountain pen. Looking back, it is like a dream to be seated cross-legged on the floor of the classroom, clutching the rectangular slate in wooden frame and a pencil. In our time, slate was an integral part in primary schools. In the present schooling however, the increasing use of notebooks has drastically brought down the use of slates and pencils. Today, the mighty Microsoft Word has almost reduced the need to write by hand.
After the 4th standard in my vernacular school (Assamese Medium), we were introduced to the ink pen. Initially, we were advised to write on banana leaves with a feather quill. Quill is a specially designed pen with bird's feather. However, gradually I realised that to use the quill was a messy process. It took me many days to find out the most appropriate angle at which the quill must be tilted on the banana leaf to ensure the ink’s smooth flow and not stain my fingers blue !!! Besides, the inkpot had to be always near. But slowly, I became adept, writing flawlessly with the quill.
The day finally came. The recognition I had been waiting for so long, that my handwriting was atleast neat enough to progress had arrived. He was my dad who brought me a fountain pen and some foolscap papers. In the beginning, I wasted more than 80 percent papers while writing with fountain pen. My dad and almost every teacher, I had in my school used to tell me, "If you don’t improve your handwriting, don’t expect good grades in examinations."
But then, while we were in the upper classes of school, the early ball-point pens arrived. They weren’t as good as ones available now. But in any event, these ball-point pens were not allowed in the school as our teachers believed that ball-point pens could ruin the handwriting. But in the college and university, it was the ball-point pen all the day. However, I must admit that the pleasure of writing with fountain pen was something special which my words can't express.
