I was watching a movie today! I did enjoy the movie, but this post is not about the movie or its story or the characters or the content. Its about something that played a teeny weeny role in the flow of the story. Something one of the characters lovingly held in his hands, as he wrote something on a piece of paper in a moving train!
A beautiful gleaming object in a lovely maroon colour with a golden cap - A beautiful Hero pen!
The first time we shifted from pencil to pen in school, was in class 4 . It is not perceived with that much significance, as many other firsts in life that get a lot more attention, but it is indeed a first that means a big thing at that age! The feel of ink on paper ; the first time we made an impression with the ink flowing from the pen, it was a beautiful feeling indeed! I am not sure what happens in schools today but then teachers believed that handwriting improved only with ink pens a.k.a fountain pens and not ball point pens! Today I rarely find any children using fountain pens atleast in this part of the world. It's mostly gel pens or ball point ones!
I remember watching my kindergarten teacher with awe as she was filling ink in her pen from the red ink bottle in the staff room. I must have been only around five but for some reason that scene is imprinted in my memory like a favorite scene from a movie. Strange are the ways these things work! Memories!
There were pens that had to be filled with an ink filler but Hero pens were special. They came with an in built filler. Another awesome fact was that they seldom leaked! ( They still exist but I am using past tense as I am talking about memories you see!)
They usually came in two colors brown or green with a golden cap and the words Hero engraved in tiny letters on the handle. I have seen some with silver caps too but they were rare!
The choice of blue or black ink is unique to ones personality in my opinion. Some of us like blue and there are those who always prefer black like my son. I remember there was a color called Blue Black in Chelpark ink brand. I guess that was for the ones who preferred middle paths! ha ha
These days there are fountain pen ink cartridges...more like use and throw type! I got one last year but somehow was not very impressed.
Nobody writes personal letters in this era of instant messaging but writing letters was a beautiful habit that existed a few decades ago. It was a medium for people to not only narrate the events in their life but in the process it helped them channel their thoughts and beliefs into concrete shapes. The pen and the paper played counsellors and the writing was therapeutic in its own way. We have a lot of famous books that are simply collections of letters don't we ?
As I said before, strange are the ways these things work! Memories....So grab a pen(Awesome if you have a Hero) and write something down!!Its a beautiful feeling !
