An Etiolated Flair
February 13, 2020
Words running into my veins sprout out as ink of my pens
-Ziya Noor
Recently, I visited a Pen expo held at Ahmedabad and I was
mesmerized to see the varieties of pens and its accessories displayed there.
Majority of them were fountain pens along with the range of inks and pen nibs.
The purpose of displaying fountain pens was to spread knowledge and use of
fountain pens as they are losing its existence due to easy and comfortable use
of roller and ball pens. I was enthralled looking at the variety of pens like crystal
pens, metal pens, wooden pens with carvings of Hanuman and Ganesh, paint brush
pens, drawing pens, calligraphy pens and many more. Pens for range of purposes
and collection of pens for each purpose were available there. The free
calligraphy workshop attracted and engaged children while parents made their
choice of pens. The objective of such expo was to spread awareness and bring
back the faded passion of writing with pen which I feel is true.
The art or the ability to write with a pen is
slowly and gradually declining with rise in the use of technology. Nowadays
writing has converted to typing, people have not stopped expressing their
feelings, thoughts, emotions in words but they have nearly stopped using a pen
to express it. Most of the people from millennial and generation z age group
have not acquired this proficiency to write with a pen. For them typing on
desktop or mobile phone is more convenient than writing on paper as their
penning down skill is not well flourished. Being a teacher it is easy to make
out from their handwriting the amount of practice they have of writing on a
paper. The writing is very shabby, uneven, with the use of short forms just the
way they type messages. It is essential to understand the important of writing
with pen as it holds much of value from overall developmental and health perspective.
Naveed Idress encourages children to write with a pen/pencil as she expresses
that “You never know what an A is unless you’ve physically drawn it.”
According to Angela Webb, a
psychologist and chair of the National Handwriting Association, engagement with
the physical environment stimulate certain areas of the brain and activate
cognitive development, therefore writing with a pen not just positively impacts
literacy but also impacts on other disciplines. Strass also emphasizes on writing
with pen and she supports it with an example that it helps to develop the
muscles required to sit at a desk for long periods. She also added that learning
to write by hand facilitate physical coordination, rhythm, stamina and posture.
The pen expo might bring a positive change in attitude towards writing and
people might understand the benefits of writing with pen. It seems hopeful that
such expos will encourage people to hold the pen and transfer the words on
paper.
Photo credits: Pen Expo, Ahmedabad
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