Friday, March 16, 2012

Yellow pencil

                                        
"Will you tell me what it is called?"
"Yellow pencil!" I replied between sobs.
"Arre that is the color, tell me the name of that pencil" my Mom was getting irritated which lead to a proportional increase in my crying.
"Ok I will look for it."

I was in first standard. I had a friend of mine who had bought these yellow pencils to school. I used to somehow love her stationery. She was the first one who had brought "penpencil" to school. Those pencils which had many leads in it. Loss of one lead and the entire pencil would be useless. Nevertheless I had wanted that too and Papa had brought me a blue penpencil. Now this yellow pencil had caught my fancy.

Mom searched in stores and came back with a yellow pencil which had black stripes on it.
'This is not the pencil I want! I know you will not bring it now!" I threw a fit.
"There's nothing called as yellow pencil! The shopkeepers keep asking the name. This is also yellow so keep it." she yelled at me.

For days I kept pestering her for the yellow pencil.
In the lunch break my friend opened her pencilbox for some reason. She used to place a paper in  her pencil box so that it doesn't get dirty with the pencil marks and for some reasons she also put something fragnant in her box so that everytime she opened her pencil box it would smell of sandalwood.
I saw four bright yellow, sharpened pencils. It had no name on it.
Ego kept me from asking her where she bought it from. It made me more stubborn to have those pencils now.

I dared not ask for those pencils after Mom's outburst. After some days I even forgot about it.
One day while watching TV, I saw an advertisement on cable. It was the same yellow pencil! Its name was Lion!
Now finally I had a name for the pencil and called out Mom to tell her I want Lion's pencil. She might have been frustrated but it was rare that I did not get what I wanted so much.

My Mom worked far away from where we lived. There are many places near her workplace which are places for wholesale stationery and many book stores as well. She made it a point to go there on a Saturday (when it would have been packed with crowd) and look for the Lion's pencil. The shopkeepers told her that the pencil might not have been produced on a big scale yet and the ad might have been just promotional. There was no Lion's pencil in market yet.

She had promised me to bring those pencils if she found them but she had no luck. She knew I would be inconsolable if she returned empty handed.

She came home with four pencil sets. Two each of Apsara Gold and Apsara Extra Dark. Those were the times when Nataraj and Apsara (the normal black one) were used in our school. These two were newly launched so she had thought this would make me happy.. How right she was!

                              
I was satisfied with the new pencils and forgot all about the yellow pencils. More than writing with them, I played with them and sharpened all of them :P

How much joy a pencil can hold only innocence can know!

Today while travelling back from college in a crowded local train, I saw a girl seated and writing with a yellow pencil. Memories came back flooding. Years later, when I think of it, I realise the tact with which Mom dealt with me. I realised how even I might have been a cause for many young children of my class crying for the new "extra dark" or "apsara gold" pencils.

Later ,when my stop was about to come, I stood near the entrance and the girl with yellow pencil too came there. She was still holding her pencil in hand.
Ego kept me from asking her the name of the pencil :P
Some things never change I guess!

19 comments:

Atrocious Scribblings said...

The things we did as kids are indeed hilarious when we recollect now and pencil or penthouse, the heart desires what it desires, isn't it?

Nice write up, had fun reading it.

Atrocious Scribblings said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wings of Harmony said...

How cute!! :D Yellow Pencil! I remember sharpening all my pencils and writing only with one! :D My mom still tells me how I used to throw a tantrum if someone broke the lead or the point got dull! :D :D Loved this one girl! :D <3

CD!!! said...

So cute! Even I loved sharpening the pencils and I would do that either to keep it with peacock feathers or make greetings. My mom never had a problem with this habit of mine as my grandpa owned a stationery shop and everything was for free :D
Loved this :)

Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan said...

such a sweet post... and so true.. Used to feel the same way about pens when we 'started' using them... always wanted what the other guys had :)

sumitra said...

Very cute post, Maithili! You brought back memories for me too, about pencils and stationery. Those were the days!

Red Handed said...

Mine was NATARAJ red with black stribes pencil, a smiley rubber and Nataraj scale and sharpener... I also used to carry a tiny plastic cover for the pencil waste after sharpening.
This is such an adorable post!

Rachit said...

your post brought back memories of those old days when we used to fight with our classmates just 'coz of petty issues like stationary. I remember how I cried after a fellow classmate broke my new pencil box. :P

lovely days were they, I still cherish :)

Weakest LINK

Unknown said...

"She used to place a paper in her pencil box so that it doesn't get dirty with the pencil marks and for some reasons she also put something fragnant in her box so that everytime she opened her pencil box it would smell of sandalwood."

Wow, boys and girls sure are different. I used to deck my pencil case out with a mixture of noodles and earthworms and present them to my sister.

Rahul Bhatia said...

A very sweet post:)

phatichar said...

Yeah, small things have their own way of bringing back huge memories.. :)

Sweet post.

Meety said...

That was such a cute post.. n yeah pen-pencils where something I used to fancy.. especially the blue transparent one with glitter all over it.. which had a cap with a tiny rubber on top... I still have them fresh in my mind.. after all these years :) Thank you for reminding me of my good old school days :)

maithili said...

@Atrocious Scribbler: And the thought that we wanted nothng more than those crazy desires!! :) Thank you :)

@ MSM : Hehe yeah sharpening them all was my favorite time pass :P I would get hysterical if the lead broke! Thank you dear.

@ CD: Wow someone was very creative :P I never thought of decorating my box so much :) But you lucky lucky girl, I always wanted a stationery shop and a chocolate shop :D

maithili said...

@Roshan : For some reason pens didn't hold the same fancy as the pencils for me :) Maybe because we started using pens only when we went into 5th grade.

@ Sumitra: Yes those were the days.. I wish I could go back to the time when only the color of my pencil was my worry :P

@ I used to use Nataraj too and those colorful smiley erasers (strange how they never got over but only lost :P ). I used to never be careful with the pencil shavings and used to get scolded at home for that :P

maithili said...

@icyhighs : I was never that careful like the other girls :P But yes "noodles and earthworms" gross!!! :D Poor sister :D

@Rahul Bhatia: Thank you so much

@Phatichar: Small things which were so great in those times :) Funny how small things are the hugest memory :)

maithili said...

@Meety: You got me girl.. I had the blue glittery penpencil :D :D I know how precious they were for me then!

Arch said...

such a happy post! I had two scented rubbers in my pencil box for the nice smell to waft by :)

maithili said...

@Archana Chari : I loved the scented rubbers :D But somehow I felt nothing was better than Nondust :D

@ Rachit: Sorry your comment went into spam :P Saw it now..
Who would have thought that one day we would be fighting the worse things and not be able to cry! As we grow up we lose the beauty in such small things :)

Varsha said...

so sweet!
I was a good child but had once thrown a fit for shoes with a bow on them...I used to call them "bow che boot" and keep chanting the chant all day. Mom did get them for me....that was the only zidd I really remember doing! Thanks for reminding me of the sweet days!