In school, all we brats had to contend with were black with vertical bordered Natraj pencils and colour pencils during the drawing class. Small notebooks with horizontal blue lines and the red vertical margin line while Maths books had pages lined with horizontal and vertical lines to give a boxy perspective. Since we're classroom rats, word gets around. Everyone knows who has the most number of pencils, best quality pencils, bags, plastic scales. A Natraj pencil holder was ok, but a Staedler pencil holder was beheld like a human deity. The first ones to bring in the pen-pencil were instant celebs. Everyone wanted to be their friend. This phase began during 3rd or 4th standard. Primary school ended with 4th standard. So did the regimen of going to school at 12 noon.
With secondary school, 6 am baths and disgruntled moods to start off a day began. Half pants made way to full pants. A slick hairstyle and cut fingernails were now to be included in a list of to-do's before setting foot into school sweet 'concentration camp' school. After the morning assembly and prayers, classes began. Remember, the term "lecture" was introduced to us in college. At this point, when someone mentioned "lecture" we would imagine a lengthy boring discourse on xyz topic, and not a generic term for "class."
The pencil now made way to the pen. Reynolds ball point pens were the vogue. Especially those with the white body and blue caps. Later came the more stylish tik-tik pens that you had to thumb-press the pen's butt to get the nib in and out. The longest lasting and school-regulation-allowed pens were the China ink pens - their nibs were so damn microscopic, its a wonder one could write with them at all. Then there's every mothers' nightmare - ink refilling adventures undertaken by the brat in school leading to ink blots over the school shirt.
Secondary school also brought the slow transition from plastic, see-through rulers to the steel ones - the same ones that irritated an entire generation of teachers, with their proinngg proingg sounds resulting from being wedged in cracks on wooden benches.
All this was taken into colleges as well. But, the satisfaction of irritating a teacher you've known for over 6,7 years doesn't compare to anything else. College passes by when you don't notice. And then work.
Work. Here, most of us don't perform manual writing on paper. Its' all typed. Its' been ages since I held a Natraj pencil or eraser. I hope this trail reverts to something retro soon. I can't think what will be next after the keyboard.
