Writing with a pencil

With pencil all those memories of school days right from nursery / KG right upto college days get refreshed! I obviously don't remember the first day when I got a pencil as part of my school kit. One of my earliest memories of a pencil like that of almost everybody from my generation would be a Nataraj pencil with red and black stripes! I faintly remember I would have two of them of different shapes along with an eraser, a small scale and a sharpener in my pencil box. Around that time we also got our first colour TV and along with Amul Butter, Nataraj Pencils cricket ad was one of the first ad I remember!

I think it was around 6th std when I first saw some really fancy pencils...ones with multiple graphite cartridges and graphite sticks. And I think it was in 8th std when I got one of those myself along with a magnetic double sided pencil box! Though somebody stole the pencil box within three months :( Appa also gifted me an unbreakable pencil at that time which I carefully retained for almost a decade before handling it over to one of my nephews. During those days I picked up a keen interest in drawing and with it got exposed to the concept of 'HB' and newer pencils! These were blue in colour. Later during my entrance exam days the same pencils were mandatory as the graphite marks made with these in the multiple choice answer sheets were recognised by the computerised scanner! Yup...was pretty surprising!

With work came pens from the basic to really fancy ones and there went pencils out of fashion...out of use and almost out of sight...Only to be seen at the production studio...We always felt too 'grown up' to use one!

One of the days when I was in a client meeting in Britannia I noticed Mr Srinivasan, the media manager was using a pencil to take notes. After a few days I realised it was not a one off day but a habit. Amused I carried on...It was the first week of another new year and I noticed Srini (as he was affectionately called) was rigorously rubbing his notes in the diary away...page by page. Curious obviously I enquired. What I got as an answer was rather stunning and touched me immensely! He told me that he would give the clean diary to either his kids or a neighbourhood school kid to use! We look for inspirations all over...in what famous personalities had to say or do. But here was one right in front of me...

Its been 7 years for that event...it was yet another new year. I got a new diary and started using it till the event stuck me. I quickly got a pencil and started using it for my daily work...No no this was not not first attempt..have tried it before but failed..almost every time because I would misplace my pencil...But this time I'm more determined than ever before...and then I've 2-3 pencils to ensure that I don't have an excuse like I had in the past...hope to end this year with a pencil in hand...