Hey! It's me! Your Pencil!

     Pencils! There lies something special on this word. One can never escape without a pencil memory from their life. Am I right? Does anyone have any idea of how many pencils we’ve used in our 12 years of schooling? How beautiful they were, they always gave a chance to erase our mistakes. They sacrificed themselves for us to reach heights though we hurt them using blades and often bite them. They always grew small as our ideas grow big. But sometimes I loved the pencils more than my ideas.

     I used to have Nataraja pencils with red and black lines over it, and then I was attracted by Apsaras. They were darker. I and my sister secretly took pencils from the new pencil box which was hidden inside the bureau.  I also remember a pencil of Faber castle which one of my uncles brought from Germany. It smelled sweet, it was long and colourful, and it had a tiny doll at the top of it. I purposefully took them to school and my friends would get envious about it. But it never had the clarity of my old pencils.

     There are a lot more memories on this tiny thing. So here comes a beautiful story I heard from one of my friends a few days back. It’s about our beloved Pencils. I would call my friend a mini library of fantasy stories. And I also suspect that he has a magic wand which produces a lot of stories! Anyway, I never get deeply bothered about it unless the stories stop coming. Stories are like nomads we say, they never seemed to stay at one place and they keep on travelling. That’s the reason why I share it with you. Hope you might also enjoy this like I did and have the nostalgia of your Pencil days. Pencils are not a big topic but small things make life memorable, doesn’t it?

…Standard 6^th classroom has just calmed down after a hurried squeeze out for a PT period. The children never bothered to arrange their bags in order. Some of them were opened, some with half zip closed and some upside down.

    Tok, Tok, Tok…..There came Peter’s pencil out of the box.  He made sure that the classroom had no marks of a human. Peter’s pencil struggled to reach the top of the bench and finally stood at the table and continued drumming the bench. “Tok…Tok…Tok…”

    Different colour headed pencils peeped out of the respective boxes. “What’s going on?”, “Why do you make the sound?” the voices loomed from the bags. “Come out boys and girls” said Peter pencil, “Our owner’s are out!” Tok Tok Tok… the drumming continued. Soon the pencils lined up the bench. Though the girls pencils felt quiet scared about their sensitive owners, they were curious about this rare gathering.

 

    “So why are we here” asked the curious David pencil. “Aren’t we bored of writing, writing, writing the same book stuffs for the past few months?” sniffed Peter pencil. “Yeah!! Raj doesn’t even draw nowadays; I wish he could draw mountains, flowers and rivers out of me” Raj pencil was almost at the tip of tears.  “I just want to poke Ram’s eyes; he always sharpens me even if I write well” the lead of Ram pencil lighted red, signaling his anger.

“So what are we going to do to rescue ourselves? Tomorrow is Friday and our owners will be out for continuous three hours. What about planning a trip to Ooty?”

    “Wow! Ooty! Could you lend me a sweater please?” pleaded Shobha pencil. “Oh! You are just like your owner! mocked Peter.

 So, the day came. It was 2.45 P.M. Hurrying; the children squeezed out … “Ready”?  One among the pencils roared.

    “Really unbelievable this hairpin bends are! Can I sit near the window please” requested Dimple pencil. “No! Don’t you remember you sat near window with your owner in the classroom, that’s more than enough” Ricky was stiff with his reply. All of them enjoyed the trip….”

    “Oh! My god, I want to vomit” Shobha pencil couldn’t complete her words, she started vomiting. But her bench mates tried helping her out with a massage on her back.

    The mountains, climate, greenery, were too pleasing for them. At the evening came a snack party. All gathered? No! One was missing.  “Anyone saw Rakhi pencil” Nobody saw her around. They kept on searching for her. “Rakhi, Rakhi….” There she stood hugging a tree. “What happened dear?”… “My mom was just as she is, she cried and cried”. “But see we are enjoying what we are!” the words of her friends consoled Rakhi pencil… They had fun talking and mocking their owners.

And now it’s a sore scene at this side.…

    “Did you see my pencil, Peter? Asked Raj. “Why would I take it, don’t you know I have a better one”. Now, Peter was annoyed to see his pencil missing. A few minutes later everybody found out their pencils were missing. Ohh! How weird! “Where are the pencils??” the little owners couldn’t think of the yelling they would get from their parents.

    Peter pencil peeped from the window. “Oh! We are a bit late...” These guys have reached already. “What are we supposed to do now”? the other pencils got scared.  “Don’t panic, let’s find a way” said Peter pencil. He led them to the store room. “Lets stay here for a while. Let them come in search of us, if they really need us”.

    “I need my Pencil, it was a special one” cried Shobha. Let’s ask the Aaya about our pencils, she might have put it in the waste baskets by mistake”. The losers of the pencils were embarrassed about the situation.

“Did you see our pencil’s aunty”. “Pencils”?  It’s not my job to keep them safe dears” she carried on with her work without knowing these children were under pressure. “Let’s see the store room, come”.

    After searching a while …“Hey, it seems like my Apsara pencil” Raj’s eyes almost looked like a bull’s eye. Oh my god, there’s mine. “That red headed is mine”. “How weird?!”… There is a robber to be aware of, the children gave an alarm. “Keep it safe!!”

Peter pencil just couldn’t stop his laughter. “The robber comes if you put us in the desert!” he murmured.

The next day the students never left their pencils alone for any reasons. “Open your notebooks and take out your pencils” ordered the teacher.

Ohh! “Very good Peter, you’re handwriting is far better now, keep it up”!

The end!

    So that was the little story of the pencils. I could proudly say that my pencils were quite happy because I often drew pictures of mountains, houses, ducks, sun, and Mickies and Minnies… I also doubt that just because of that I got pretty good hand writing!

    Anyway, I am sure that by this time everyone would have at least thought one of the incidents with your beloved pencils. Just share it and bring back your nostalgia… Small things makes life memorable and beautiful!!

Susuwrites...