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Friday 7 November 2014

Where is my pen!

With the onslaught of internet, many items have seen a premature cessation and downfall of  several  living and non living things. Many people born  in late 90s have not got an opportunity to use many  items of daily use. One thing  which has been a great causality is the meagre  PEN. The pen which was once considered to be mightier than the sword is now cursing its instant downfall. From the children  right up to the highest  in the hierarchy, every one has seen the downfall of  the pen  .People used to proudly flaunt their collection of  fountain pens. But with one stroke, the mighty pen became  desolate and lonely.
                              The pen was a proud and prized possession of writers, autocrats, business men, bureaucrats and CEO's. To give a  Parker, Cross or Sheffers  pen as a gift was very prestigious. Now the pen has lost it glamour. The place of pride has been taken away by Internet. All instructions, and notes are  given through the Internet.. Letters, informal  and formal  are sent through the Internet. While there are several advantages of the Internet , it is responsible for the downgrading of a  language. Those days when we wrote letters, we  wrote descriptions of various things like nature, about our children, about pets and what not. In e-mail, we write only the matter of fact information. In a way, though time is saved, the beauty of the usage of the language is affected. The SMS language is even more damaging. There is no grammar and no building of relations. In fact typed letters sent to  a friend was considered as an insult  those days.
                                         The notes, correspondence, diaries  and orders written by famous people helped in forming their biographies.In case of renowned scientists,much advancement could be achieved by going through their works,preserved  in their offices/ labs /homes. So far there is no way by which Internet scribblings can be saved for future generations or to be benefited from them.
                                     Many people now prefer to write on line, because by using the Internet, their handwriting has become atrocious. People write much more now, as compared to olden days,  and due to this reason their handwriting has  got a set back. The modern trend of introducing Internet to very small children in class 1, is one step further in the use of Internet and less use of fountain pens.
                                        Like telegrams and post cards, very soon a pen may also become a memory.


















6 comments:

  1. True, for adults, pen is finding lesser use now-a-days but when we move towards digital communication in schools, it may become extinct completely then!

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    1. Thanks Shilpa. Wonder what other things will become extinct with time.

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  2. What you say Usha is all true: the pen used to be rather ubiquitous and is becoming more rare - eventually possibly becoming extinct as voice recognition and other forms of communication prevail. The words to Charles Dicken's novel, A Tale of Two Cities starts, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." ;) There are pros and cons to everything! For myself, though I used to write a lot of letters in past, I type fast and the speed and efficiency, not to mention the legibility is a huge advantage! ;) <3

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    1. Yes Elly one by one many things are losing their utility.Thanks for reading this article.

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  3. So true. The pen was such a prized possession. There is something about the hand written note that the typed word lacks. I think we could see the personality of the person in their handwriting. My dad used to write quotes in a book - they are my prized possessions. Nice post Usha.

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    1. Thank you Suzy. Hand written notes and letters evoked emotions, which can never be replaced by typed material.

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