Of Writing and of Pens

I discovered something very startling today, well not so much startling as lamentable, actually its neither pathetic nor apathetic, anyways I just realised that I hardly ever write or read anything that's written nowadays.

Ok don't get me wrong here - I know I read lots and lots of lines of code and their asociated documentation and I write a little bit of code too and even lesser documentation and I also do this blog thing everyday both reading and (lesser amount of) writing, and then there are newspapers, mags, books yada yada yada. But how much of it is written - written as in "handwritten on a paper with a pen"?

This profound thought struck me today morning when I got off the auto and I needed change to pay the auto guy. The nearest shop was a stationery shop and I bought the cheapest thing possible to get change(I figured they won't take too kindly to buying an envelope and then demanding change for 100 bucks). Thats when it happened bammm! - Thats the noise that realization made when it struck me that it was ages since I had bought a pen!

I had always had this fascination for pens since the time I was a kid. As a kid I awaited for the graduation from pencil to pen with great excitement. Unfortunately for me, my school permitted us to use pens only at a significantly higher age than other schools. I remember getting all worried 'coz some of my younger cousins were usings pens at school while I was still the kiddo with pencils. And then the pen shopping - I went with an army of cousins each with their expert opinion on how the nib should be and what kind of ink to buy(yes, it was still the age of fountain pens). Ball point pens were taboo. And then gradually the experimentation with ball point pens and finding out they are snazzier, less messier and a whole lot easier. During my days at college I had this thing for a particular kind of PaperMate pens that were available in very select shops in Chennai and totally unavailable in Pilani. During the holidays I would stock on them to last me for a whole semester. In the middle, I also developed a fancy for gel pens and during my whole second year I used nothing else. Over all these years I held on to my Parker fountain pen though - refusing to buy notebooks from Nutan 'coz they would blot when I used it!

And now pens don't interest me anymore! :-( I dutifully carry a scribble pad and pen to all the meetings I go to, but I don't do anything with my pen except to chew on the end or to occasionally doodle in order to stay awake. And I don't even know where my beloved Parker is.

I miss the age of notebooks, pens and the like. I want to write something on paper regularly. Maybe I should write my blog on paper everyday and "actually" post it to the few people who read it. :-) And I want to read what other people write on paper - letters would be nice, love letters would be nicer still! ;-)