Indian express article

The article was published in the weekly metro supplement called City Express
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From a slate pencil we all graduate to the HB pencil in kindergarten, but with the introduction of ink pens, the pencil takes a back seat and is used for sketching diagrams. By high school ink pens become messy and there is a switch to ballpoints. Right there we bid farewell to good handwriting. The pointy ballpoints ruin the flow and pressure making our handwriting scrawny and careless. I took my 1st std cousin’s ‘handwriting note’, and through the child’s immaturity I saw a perfect symmetry of letters with the ease of reading her s and r. When I compare it with my own today, I can barely decipher what I’ve written. We seem to be tending to get ‘a doctor’s hand’ at writing.

Dad came back home one evening, excited about his new joy of writing in his work diary with a pencil. It was interesting to see a 50 yr old man carrying a pencil, sharpener and eraser with his reading glass case to a corporate meeting. I decided to follow suit as I find that apart from merely taking notes in class, doodling helps me create new designs for embroidery on my salwars. Sadly a prof. looked down upon me when he discovered me taking notes in a pencil with the “grow up!” look in his eyes. Well, for me my handwriting is becoming legible and it’s amusing to tuck it behind my ear and feel like an intellect who is working on a major math formula.

Apart from handwriting improvement, pencils are eco-friendly, made of non-toxic and renewable (ie. wood) materials. We consume a great amount of PVC by using ink pens, ballpoint pens, re-fills and cartridges not only in the casing but the ink too, that have a very short life span. We only add to nature’s woes of non-degradable, chemical leaching, environmental hazard of plastic disposal. So think again if it is to take down notes for unofficial use or even writing to a friend with a pen.