Of pens and personal attachment

We are in the age of gel and ball point pens. They are utilitarian and long life is not demanded of them. Most of them are of "use and throw" variety.

At school and collge , we used fountain pens. The pens as well as nibs had long life.

More than the pen, its nib, on prolonged use developed a character of its own mirroring the writing style of its owner. The nib used to wear out with a "personal" touch depending upon angle of grip and pressure applied by is owner.

As a consequence, it was tough to borrow a fountain pen and use it at one stretch for long writing work. I used to find my sister's pen "rough" and she also had similar feeling about my pen. Hence it was much easier for the pen to stay with the owner for long without "getting lost".

With proliferation of mass produced gel and ball point pens, such attachment to pen is uncommon among students these days.

I spent six years in high school from 1970 to 1976 with two Wilson fountain pens -Bril ink was cost effective while Chelpark was more expensive.

These days pens do not like my long term friendship 😪