Being away from Pakistan for many years, I have missed many small things which I always used to take for granted. One such small thing is the joy of writing with a fountain pen.
A Fountain pen was first patented in US in the year 1884 and writing with it eeamined in vogue until quite recently but these days writing with it has become a lost art. I have shopped around for fountain pens in US and the cheapest ones I have found cost around $15 and they write so bad that Pakistani ‘Eagle’ brand can beat then anytime and anyplace. Eagle is an international brand but their product in Pakistan was one of the best or at least it feels like it after all these years of nostalgic memories.
Twenty years ago a Pakistani ‘Eagle’ used to cost around rupees four. I preferred to write Urdu with Eagle because its nib was not that fine. For writing English, I had a ‘Made in China, ‘HERO’ brand pen which was priced around rupees eleven. Then there were some really cheap fountain pens which gave wonderful Urdu writing. One of them was ‘RAJA’ (The Prince) fountain pen which cost around a princely sum of rupees 2 only. Another cheap fountain pen was Dollar which also cost around rupees three.
I had my Raja pen’s nib cut at an angle (Z-nib) to write the ‘Nastaleeq Urdu script. I never mastered the art of writing ‘Nastaleeq Urdu’ or calligraphy but it was fun to at least try writing it.
We used a ‘z-nib’ fountain pen to write Sindhi also. I remember that some of my class fellows used ‘z-nib’ to write complete exam papers of Sindhi. They however, always struggled to finish the paper in time too.
For those of us who graduated high school from Sindh Board may remember that one question in Sindhi salees (easy) board exam was about writing a Sindhi poem in ‘khush-khat’ (good hand-writing). This question was repeated every year and everyone practiced very hard in it to score some sure-shot marks. I used a ‘z-nib’ fountain pen to write that poem.
Somehow improving hand-writing has always been a big deal in Pakistan’s school system. The generation before mine used to write on a washable wooden board (takhti) and used ink-dip calligraphic pens for Urdu. We didn’t use ‘takhti‘ but up to grade X we were not allowed to use ball-point pens as it was supposed to destroy our hand-writings. This strict rule relaxed a bit in Grade XI and XII but I 
remember a certain teacher in Grade XII used to throw ball-points out of the class window if he saw anyone writing with it.
Writing with ball-points and markers for the past many years made me crave for fountain pens so much so that on a trip to Taiwan in 2003, fountain pens were the first and the last shopping I did. I now proudly own a collection of fountain pens and I write with them whenever I crave.
Today while editing this article I practiced my Parker again and copied the above ‘sher’ (A poem verse) on a white sheet of paper. While my hand-writing is no way close to good or calligraphic my pen however is a perfect Urdu scripter.
Hopefully on my next trip to Pakistan I’ll buy a few more fountain pens.
Pakistan is a great nation and there are many things to write home about. There are problems, is there a country that has no problems. Even the greatest nations went through a turbulent period where every day there were questions about their very existence. Can you forget that United States of America nearly split into confederates and the unionists? Only with the great leadership of Abraham Lincoln and some luck did America stayed together after the confederate army was defeated at the Gettysburg. And look where USA is today. We must tell our people that there is hope at the end of tunnel. Look what we have achieved in the last 60 years, a country with no infrastructure to speak of and which did not even have a needle to bind papers at the time of independence is now feeding 170 million people.
Yes there is corruption and bad governance but does that mean that we tell our people everyday that your country is going to finish tomorrow. Lets give them something concrete steps to think about and work on, lets give them some ideas to survive and prosper and this is my belief that if we keep doing our work as opinion makers than eventually the word will get through and we shall see our great country of Pakistan at the top of ever positive endeavour in the world. Let
I’m currently on a visit to Karachi and will be heading back to the US in 3 weeks. If you want, I can get you some fountain pens. Consider it complements from a reader!
Nostalgia all the way as this site always brings. If I dive into my childhood I remeber the age of “takhti” was getting over , in early 80-81 , my mother bought one for me to show me how my parents used to write on this to improve writing with “sarkinda”. Till class three we were allowed to write only with pencils. ( There is also nostalgia about pencils too , Deer, Goldfish , chinese pencils with rubbers etc. ) Didn’t know about clutch pencils and steadlers at that time.
If I categorize about Pens there were four categories I think.
Eagle,Dollar, Raja etc
Youth ( no body mentioned this) Hero ,
WingSung
Gifted Parkers etc.
As far as stained hands and wiping with hairs , this is same for all of us . Nothing was easier than cleaning a leaky pen with your head unless you are bald :)
Thanks Owais for such wonderful nostalgic article.
What a lovely post. My handwriting is better when I write with a fountain pen. I remember that in university my class fellows would wonder: “you still use a fountain pen”.
The joys of using fountain pens bring back some nice memories, though I have to admit I haven’t really used one since my FSc premed years.
I remember preparing my stationary before exams. The ritual would include cleaning my three pens that I would use for the exam. A typical cleaning would involve refilling and emptying the pens with water a couple of times and then letting the water dry out. You would then fill them up with ink and carry a bottle of ink as well, just in case. Though it really seemed cumbersome back then and we all just wanted to use ball point pens, I think it’s a good tradition. The number of replies to this post proves it :)
And then there’s a confession to make. During my first year of O levels I remember sprinkling one of our teachers with ink using a fountain pen. The deed was done when he was facing the blackboard and a couple of my friends were accomplices as well. Towards the end of the class the back of his jacket was really ruined, I do really hope that somehow the drycleaners were able to clean that up. So, our teacher goes back to the staff room, is back almost instantaneously along with the principal and a few other teachers. No body fesses up and as a result we get collective punishment, which included among other things a couple of rounds of our cricket grounds. It’s a miracle our parents weren’t called.
Anyhow, I have always wanted to apologize to our ‘Sir’..but couldn’t muster the courage to do so on my recent trip to Pak, I hope I can on my next visit.