Some Things I Forgot

A Gift of a Ballpoint Pen

Though I prefer to write with only a fountain pen I don’t mind writing with ballpoint pens or even pencils. It isn’t that I love only fountain pens: I love all writing instruments- ball points, pencils and even typewriters. There’s a wider variety of ball points than fountain pens. They come in all shapes and sizes plus they are available everywhere. Whenever a ballpoint pen catches my fancy I pick it up. Most of my work in the office I do with a ballpoint pen so there are quite a few of them in my desk at the office. Sometime in December a friend who stays in Australia gave me a nice Waterman ballpoint pen. It was a black colored one with gold trim and was quite arresting in appearance. I loved it so much I carried it around in my shirt pocket for a few days though I wouldn’t be seen dead without a fountain pen in my pocket.

Getting the Fountain Pen Hospital Catalog

Sometime last year Jai showed me a beautiful catalog of Fountain Pen Hospital that he had with him. He told me the FPH people send a free catalog to anyone who registers at their site. I did the same and forgot all about it until a couple of months later a sealed cover landed at home. When I opened the catalog and looked at it I very nearly lost my mind. There were pictures of beautiful fountain pens and also ball point pens of several companies like Parker, Sheaffer, Mont Blanc and a lot of companies whose names I had never come across anywhere. There were literally scores of pictures of fountain pens, each one as different from the other and as good looking as anything else. FPH is in New York and if I ever go to NY I will not return without paying a visit to FPH.

Sixteen Years on the Job

One of the hardest or rather the hardest things about a government job is a struggle that is almost a daily one. I don’t know about others but every day I struggle to maintain my individuality. I struggle not to become one of those faceless bureaucrats more concerned about their salaries, their allowances, holidays and such things except about work. A government job brings transformations in one’s attitude, personality and world view one cannot perceive until others point it out. So far no one has mistaken me for a government servant when I am out of office. There are only a few things I like about my job in the government other than the kind of work I enjoy doing. This list of things I don’t like is growing with each year and it’s been sixteen years that I first joined this job with the plan to quit but never did.

On the last day of the previous year, that is on the thirty first of December 2009 I completed sixteen years on the job. I can’t believe that I have stayed for so many years when my original plan was to quit after a couple of years. Why I did not quit maybe because I lacked the confidence to take the risk or maybe because I have come to enjoy the job, which is unlikely. Whatever, the only thing I look forward to is the possibility of voluntarily quitting after completing twenty years on the job. For that I have to wait until 2013.

Tooth & Nail by Ian Rankin

I managed to read Ian Rankin’s ‘Tooth & Nail’ that I had picked up sometime last month. It is about Inspector Rebus being called to London to assist in tracking down a serial killer. It is quite engrossing but what I liked about Inspector Rebus was that he turns out to be a book collector! I automatically consider those who write with fountain pens and those who collect books as my friends but since Rebus is a fictianal character it has to be a fictional friendship. After learning about his love for books I plan to read more of the Inspector Rebus series of books.