‘Hey bro! Do you have a
lighter?’
‘Yeah sure, here you
go.’
I always had a lighter with me no matter what. Friends and
other people often asked me for one. While handing them over the lighter, a
dialogue always appeared in my head:
‘Talha, you should have
a pen. You ask daily for one.’
Yes. When someone asks me for a lighter, this lighter asking
question takes me back to those school/college/university days when I never
bothered carrying a pen. I always asked my friends for a pen or a pencil or
whatever to write down some important quote of my teacher or some assignment
submission date but, not for good.
There was a time when we used to make our handwriting very
beautiful. We used to learn and practise. I don’t know if that is still taught
in our schools but I remember there was a learning copy to practice some slant
looking handwriting with sharpness and perfection. A lot of people failed to
achieve that perfection in writing and teachers usually quoted that particular
student:
‘Are you crippled?’
Or
‘Did you write with
broken hands?’
We used to ask other students from different schools over
social gatherings that how is your handwriting? Especially we used to look upon
those who has the talent to write with that slant looking handwriting (People at
that time named that style Joining Handwriting and I still don’t know the real
name of that style). Perhaps, there was a trend of joining handwriting then.
I don’t remember the last time when I used a pen or pencil to
write down something useful. This office word is doing all the writing jobs
even in our very national language (Urdu) (Inpage). After a long gap, I just
wrote down something and I stopped at the very first word. The reason was I had
forgotten the spellings.
Cannot blame auto-correct (Because it’s only my fault) but, that
was very tense for a while and I felt something strange while writing. I just
focussed upon my handwriting and penned down some quotes with different styles
(Personal). Though, I just wrote some random quotes (Not mine) but I realised just
by holding I was flooded with many ideas
– what should be
written, selection of words, how the execution will be done and most of all the
thoughts hit you with more clarity.
You never remember your teachers’ sayings until and unless
you experience them yourself. This whole experience of pen holding reminded me
of my BRAND’s teacher who taught us Brand Management and Consumer Behaviour,
once he told us:
‘I usually get great
ideas while I’m sitting on a commode, that’s why I have kept a pen and a writing
pad permanently in my washroom.’
And once during the Jumma Prayers, Imam Sahab said:
‘There are two
occasions where unintentionally thoughts are generated in your heart and mind.
One when you go to the washroom when the nature is calling and second during
saying you’re Prayers.’
I’m not saying to dump your computers but just coming up with
a suggestion not to forget the basics. In fact, move along with the basics. After
all, this new post of mine is just an outcome of that pen holding experience. :)
Nobody is an easy believer these days so I will suggest all
of you especially those who are professional writers; if you are assigned a job
to write something, anything; take a pen/pencil and a paper. Complete the job
with your general knowledge and then come back to Google, open up Word on your
computer and start typing what you have saved over a piece of paper with your
old or new pen/pencil. During typing the content on Word or Inpage, you will
get the difference. But, to feel that difference, you need to try it first.
Take a look at the quotes:
If you are a smoker and you don’t have cigarettes, then you
must have a lighter because you never know when you get one to light a fire (This example is just to make you understand
not to encourage you for smoking, quit smoking for good). Same is the case
with the writers, they must keep a pen and a paper in their pockets because
they never know when an idea is going to strike them.
‘Hey bro, why you never
keep a lighter?’ I
always ask such folks this question, and what’s in their head usually revealed
as:
‘Because, we have
YOU!!!’
