Living In The 90's Meant

Cartoon Network was at its peak with Captain Planet,Swat Kats,Dexters Lab,Ninja Robots,Scooby Doo,The Jetsons,The Flinstones,The Little Lulu Show,Centurions.









We actually looked up places on the atlas and not on Google Map,especially for geography map homework. And everyone had a globe at home.

We knew books like Famous Five, The Five Findouters, Secret Seven, Amelia Jane, The Naughty Girl, St Clares, Malory Towers and when we became teens we read Nancy Drew (for girls) and Hardy Boys (for boys) instead of reading about creatures of the dark with glittering body,fangs and bloodlust and their pale human girlfriend.



We were crazy about Harry Potter (at least i was) or star wars et all and we had cuttings about our favourite movie/actor/franchise and had a diary where we glued all those cuttings. We didnt browse the net,we read newspapers.








We wrote on lokenath khata. the most popular brand of khatas in Calcutta,slowly being replaced by Classmate now.

There was no hard drive or pendrive. We copied and stored our songs and movies on CDs (even DVDs came in much later).most of us still have the huge collection of CDs.One movie generally needed 2 CDs each.and we used floppy drives for documents,excel worksheets etc. No pendrives to exchange data in.







And the first cell phone in India was so big that I am pretty sure you can use it as a club and will result in immediate death of the person if it ever comes in contact with his head. It had no vibration,no calendar,no reminder but it had what even the fanciest cell phones still have now -  Snakes.

More Than Just a Pen

My first Parker pen.It is an ink pen.I got it on my 11th birthday. 

Father is not very good at hiding birthday presents.I found out what he was going to give me when I opened his drawer.He isnt very good with hiding places. 

There once was a time when people would use pens to write down what they thought.On paper. 

Those days are gone.Its all about technology now.And touch screens and what not. 

There was once a time when mistakes could not be deleted by using backspace but could only be scratched out.When you looked back you could see your the flaws.A time when you had to refill your pen with ink.A pen was not just a pen. 

Everyone had different handwriting.You could tell a lot about the person through his or her handwriting.Now it all Times New Roman or Comic Sans.

Writing with an ink pen was like indulging in your favourite chocolate and savouring every bite.

Everyone wrote with pencils till class 2 or 3.We would have handwriting classes where we practiced writing with ink pens till we were given permission in class 4 to officially use pens.

We used the Chinese ink pens.They came in 2 colours.Red and green,both with silver caps.

The joy we felt.It was our first sacred steps into adulthood,holding the pen.

And then i got my birthday present. 

It is navy blue with pale glitters and it was my most favourite thing in my pencil box.I love it.I still do. 

I grew up. So did my pens.The Chinese ink pens were forgotten.The ink bottle dried up.I graduated to gel pens.Then ball point pens.  

But my first Parker ink pen was like a part of me.Even if I did not use it regularly it was always in my pencil box.I could not take it out from there. 

Until one day I left my pencil box in school. 

The only thing I was worried about was my Parker ink pen.I prayed to Him for its safety.  

When I finally found my pencil box I heaved a sigh of relief.I decided that I cannot play with the life of my pen.So i kept it safe at home. 

But I would still sometimes just take it out and admire it even when i stopped writing with it. 

The ink for this pen was special.Only Parker ink.The bottle still has some ink in it.And it has not dried up,not even after 10 years. 

Its been very long since I wrote something with a pen.Its generally clickety clack on the keyboard. 

Ink pens are like endangered species now.No one uses them. In fact I have not used it for years.

But today for some reason I took out The Pen,filled it with ink and took it to work.I do not have any other pen in my bag.Only the one pen. And it makes my handwriting look just beautiful.

Seems like my pen still has not given up its duty,despite its age,despite the battle worn body,despite the cracks. 

And never will I.