My Hero

I was quite amused to see an exclusive showroom of Reynolds pens down the road. I still remember the little, fair kid who cutely stroked his face with his tiny finger, in that old Reynolds ball pen ad that ended with the tagline – Reynolds – The pen the world prefers. During those days I was thrilled by the ad; also by the lean white pen with the blue cap. I had it in my shirt pocket, during many days of my middle school life. It was a kind of fashion statement. The blue cap of Reynolds protruded elegantly out of the white pocket of my uniform shirt. Months rolled and dark pink or jet black cap of Reynolds pen replaced the blue ones. Reynolds had come out with pens that fully matched the colour of the pen’s soul – the refill. No more white body. The pen was of a single colour right from the head to the tail. Black was my favourite. The most frequently done activity with the pen was – practising various styles of my signature. Some were neat; some chic; some like the ECG report. Usually the last pages or the inside of the outer cover or some boring pages of the text books had such signature specimens. Signing in different fonts gave me a kick. It probably made me feel very important and popular. It probably gave form to the creativity inside. It probably told me, “Look, once you are a big man your signature is going to be a plain, boring one. Better try out many designs now and be happy”. Yes, I have a very bland signature now. I just write my name above the dotted line. In fact in one occasion the person collecting the filled application asked me why I had written my name in the box provided for my signature!

The pen policy of our school forced many of us to have two sets of pens. We were not allowed to use ball pen in the school. So, while Reynolds pen added to my style quotient the actual dog work was done by a good old fountain pen. It was usually a Camlin or King of Kings pen during the high school days. It required a lot of skill to fill ink in these fountain pens without turning the fingers blue with Bril. A kerchief or a bit of white cloth from an abandoned vest was always useful. Fountain pens also had another problem – they can go dry at crucial times. Some teachers do not like students to borrow pens while the classes go on. Some fountain pens found it interesting to go empty during such classes. During such times it required a specific knack to borrow a pen from someone, without getting the teacher’s attention. But as I grew up the Reynolds cap was replaced by the shiny, golden clip of the black fountain pen. It gave a high.

“Made in China” was not something really bad those days. Or was it “Made in Korea”? I’m not sure. But Hero pen was something that defined one’s personality those days. The dark brown(?) body and the golden cap can never be forgotten. The pointed nib produced an excellent flow of words. But the pen took some time to get “set”. During the first few days after purchase the writing was somewhat sharp and the flow was not very pleasant. But in a matter of another couple of days, Hero was one’s best friend. Hero just effortlessly swam on the white sheets of paper. I had my Hero with me for more than 5-6 years, right from my Class XI. I gave my XII Board exams with that pen. Apart from the classy touch and royal look another attraction of Hero was the ink filler it had. Though the capacity of the filler was not very much it ensured that Bril did not spoil our fingers anymore. Also, the capacity was quite sufficient to complete one paper of the Class XII exams. It was quite a delight to go to school with a set Hero in the pocket. It really gave me a kick. I had tried a black Hero too for some days; but it did not get set. My favourite Hero was with me well till the end of college life. I was quite sentimental about it. In fact, if my memory is not very week, I guess my Hero had found a place in our Class XII group photograph too. I’m happy about it. Generally, like many others, I too was not comfortable lending my Hero to someone. I had a spare one for borrowers.

It is a different matter that I did not get a chance to use that Hero extensively after the XII Board exams. My quality of preparation, intelligence level and the nature of exams in our college compelled me to settle for very ordinary pens like – the blue Reynolds!