After taking up the post as the head of an
Educational Institution, my love for fountain pens took a vishwaroopam, of course not like the Vishvarupa in the Hindu mythology. I purchased two Parker Frontier
Matte Black Fountain Pens...
Let me something about fountain pens...
I am not an advocate of graphology or an
expert in the field of Graphemics or Graphematics. However, I do believe that
handwriting is an important means in identifying intellectual abilities,
discipline and the related inner persona of a person.
The invention of fountain pen was a great
relief to the age-old practice of writing with quills, constantly dipping in the
ink. Fountain pen have an ink reservoir in the body of the pen itself that
feeds to the nib; some science of gravity and capillary action involved,
although we don’t realise it fully when we use pens. Although a lot of people
invented different kinds of fountain pens in different countries, it was
Petrache Poenaru of Romania who received a patent from France on May 25, 1827,
for the first fountain pen with a barrel. Sophisticated fountain pens were
latter prepared by Safford Parker in1898, and Waterman in 1908 that gave rise
to today’s pens which has a feed, generally black in colour, nib (mainly in
various sizes, extra fine, fine, medium, broad) that gives the size and shape of
writing and the container that holds the ink. Generally corrosion resistant
materials are used to prepare the nibs.
I started using ink cartridge fountain pens since 2010 and I love using it for its ease and smoothness compared
to ball pens. I have few Camlin Trinity Pens. More than the smoothness, my childhood craze for pen (Freudian unconscious??) is involved in my love for fountain pens. As
regards to my purchase of Parker Frontier, I was waiting for an occasion to satisfy my childhood craze and the new career growth gave an impetus and an reasonable
excuse to spend few bucks on fountain pens.
Coming back to the original story of vising the Pen Hospital, both the pens I bought have medium nibs and the hand writing was wide. I like thin writing which is contained and restrained. Please do not waste your time analysing the hidden meaning of my handwriting. Thinking of changing the medium nib to a fine or extra fine one I went to the Pen Doctor with my twin Parkers.
The hospital did not have any sophistication
of MNC or modern-day multi-specialty hospitals, just a small room less than
100sft. When I went to the hospital
around 430 in the afternoon, the doctor was alone, standing in his clinic, looking for clients... I liked the
privacy in the doctor’s room for my consultation. Dr.Nazar, (I suppose, I got his name correctly) the physician
welcomed me gleefully with a smile that can be interpreted in many ways. The
table of the doctor was filled with pens of all kinds, some good ones, fractured
ones, some looked sick etc, etc… there were also few new ones kept for sale.
I explained the doctor my Parker’s problem that the writing is wide and asked him to change the nib to a fine one. He had a close look at the nib
and scratched on a piece of paper to understand the gravity of the sickness I
was narrating to him. He took a pliers and pressed the nib and checked the nib
again, had some sample writing and gave back to me. He did the same with the
second pen also (while operation was going on in my parker, a man came and
asked for a ball pen refill, and the doctor sold it in between). After doing two
successful operations, the doctor gave me few instructions. He instructed me to
Post the cap while writing (putting the cap on the end of the pen) which I
don’t do. Maybe I must try it. Another piece of advice was to use the wrong
side of the nib if I want still thinner letters and according to the doctor, it
is oky to use both the sides.
Once I finished the work in the Hospital, I asked him politely and smiling sheepishly, by the way, how much is the charge… I expected he would ask, 20 or 50 Rs. He smiled and said, no need to pay; I opened my wallet and took some money and gave him, saying, it is my gift for you…
Thus, my visit to the doctor came to a happy
ending.
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