The Old School!

‘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!!!’