50 years ago, an Eagle fountain pen used to cost 8 annas, and a slightly better one cost 12 annas. However, after some time, it would start leaking and leave ink marks from the nib, turning your pocket blue. Sometimes, the pump would break, and buying a new one was a bit difficult, so you had to make do with the broken one. Do you remember?
There was a blotting paper as well. I mean, a thick paper that absorbed the ink. I used to have it, and after writing, I would place it over the page so that when I turned the page, the ink wouldn’t smudge onto the other side of the notebook.
The pump pen wasn’t reliable. The tube one was better. When you pressed the tube and released it, the ink would flow into the pen’s tube. Once, I pressed the tube too hard, and the ink splashed onto the teacher’s face. I got quite a beating for that.
A friend reminded me that during our time, when the lines on our writing slate faded, we used to take a used battery cell, break it, or maybe burn it to extract the coin inside. Our hands would turn black. We used to apply chalk to the slate and rub it repeatedly.
Then we would place it in the sun to dry, and after it dried, we would use the coin to draw lines again and write numbers and tables. When our hands got dirty, we would rub them on our clothes, making both our hands and clothes black. If we touched our face, it would turn black as well.
At home, we would get scolded harshly by our father, and our mother would scold us separately.
