Our oldest friend in school! We wrote our first words with it, drew our first masterpiece with it, and scribbled our first love letter with it. can’t thank it enough!
It was a daily occurrence, to enter the class and find our friends huddled around a dustbin, sharpening
their pencils. Quickly, we too would join them with our Nataraj pencils and sharpener and exchange
notes about what happened since school concluded yesterday. Concerns about unfinished homework would be shared, nods, gestures and suggestive looks would be made as and when our crush would enter the class. As we walked away, we pricked fingertips with the pencil ends to see if they were sharp.
We had quite a few brands and types of pencils to choose from, the most common brand being the red and black Nataraj pencils. Then came the Apsara black and grey pencils. Some used the ones by Camlin. There were others who used the fancy pen-pencils in which you inserted long, thin lead pieces and had to be careful not to chip the lead away. Then there were the other fancy pencils with the erasers at the other end. The erasers did not last too long though and were generally not as good as the quality of the “non-dust” Apsara erasers!
Some of us would pride ourselves on sharpening the pencil without causing the pencil shaving to break, and would then go on to make flowers from it and show off in front of our classmates. There would be others who would sharpen the pencil at both ends for fun and then would ensure that all their pencils are immediately sharpened at both ends. Very risky, though.
Of course, the pencil wasn’t just used for writing. We had devised other uses too! Most of us would chew on the pencil as the teacher would read from the book or solve math problems on the writing board. It was almost an involuntary habit that we formed and thought that it helped us concentrate. There would be others who would (much to the horror of others) use the pencil to scratch their back or poke inside their ears. Then, of course, there were the pen and pencil fights! We would use the desk (generally meant for two students) and flick the pencil from one end of the desk towards the other pencil. The more powerful and skilful flick would overpower the other pencil and send it flying towards the floor. This was frowned upon by the teachers and many of us were given the usual punishments and scolding for indulging in these pencil fights. Some of us would also remember the way we would keep a one rupee coin behind a page and use a pencil to inscribe the design of the coin on the page! And finally, many of us indulged in the shameless disfiguring of the pictures of national heroes on history books.
Even today, using a pencil at work brings a rush of old memories of the school days gone by!
