The Class by Erich Segal

I have been writing a lot about stationery. I have some more drafts on stationery but I thought it would be good to take a break from it and discuss some of the books that I read during my recent vacation. I will discuss one of these books in this post. 

I bought "The Class" by Erich Segal from The Book Point in Himayatnagar in Hyderabad. It was on my bookshelf for a long time and I never got around to reading it. I started reading it slightly before my recent vacation but read a big part of it during my vacation and on the flight to my vacation destination.

I picked up an Erich Segal after a long time. I have previously read his "Man, Woman and Child", "Doctors" and "Love Story". "Doctors" is my favourite Erich Segal book. I am quite amazed by the variety in his writing ranging from lives of doctors to intricate and complex relationships. 

This particular book is about a few Harvard students and what they live up to be 25 years on. The book has 2 parts, which in turn has 2 been conveyed in 2 ways. The book focusses on the lives of a bunch of students in the Harvard's class of '58, mainly- Andrew Eliot, Daniel Rossi, Jason Gilbert, George Keller and Ted Lambros. The story of the book is conveyed in 2 ways as mentioned earlier- one is through the writer and another through the diary of Andrew Eliot. 

The book starts with an introduction to the background of these 5 students and how they managed to get into Harvard and then moves on to their lives at Harvard. 4 of the 5 students- Daniel Rossi, Jason Gilbert, George Keller and Ted Lambros are portrayed as exemplary students with several achievements under their belt, while Andrew is shown to be this everyday, average guy whose only achievement is the influential family into which he is born into. There are a few other friends and some girlfriends/wives of these characters that also make a significant appearance in the book by virtue of their relationship to the main characters. The second part of the book focusses on how these students have made it in a life after Harvard which culminates in their reunion after 25 years. This is the gist of the book and any more information would definitely be a spoiler.

Erich Egal has beautiful woven the key current affairs of the time into the story and characters. He has boldly used real people as characters of the story, such as Henry Kissinger, Ron Reagan, Yonathan Netanyahu etc making the reader feel very close to reality and wonder if this is a true story. These are some of the characters which have a significant appearance in the book. What struck me was the kind of prejudices that have been said to have existed in the US/Harvard at the time, such as - prejudices against Jews. It was kind of strange to think it could have existed in institutions like Harvard. Of course the story is based in the 50s and reading the book in 2018 startled me a bit and made me realise how much life has changed. 

Most of the characters have been developed quite well with several aspects of their personalities being explored. However, at the end of the book, Andrew Eliot is declared as the best man in the class of '58; somehow I felt his character could have been built some more, different facets of his life could have been shown which could make the readers convince that he was the best in a more whole-hearted manner. I think this was one character who could have been explored more.

The language in the book is nice and fluid. It is not a slow book but not too fast either. I would not call it "unputdownable" but it was quite engaging. Considering the time at which this book was published, I would say, this was not a very common concept for books so I can imagine how enjoyable it must have been to the readers in the 80s as it must have come to the readers at the time, as a whiff of fresh air. Even to this day, I cannot think of too many books with such a concept. 

There are several female characters in the book and play a significant role in the book. They have been portrayed as strong and intellectual, with opinions they do not fear to voice.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely and would rate it 4/5.

My Rambling About Fountain Pens and My Current Favourites

My school included writing with fountain pens from standard V. Ball point pens were a strict no-no  and the use of the same would attract a punishment. Fountain pens or ink pens what we called back in the day, were considered crucial in the development of a good handwriting. They were introduced at standard V as this was considered to be the time/age when our handwriting starts stabilizing. I remember well that my mother would make us practise our writing with fountain pens, at least a page every day in some old notebooks and diaries during summer holidays so that it improves for the next academic year. Thanks to that, I think my handwriting, though not the most beautiful ( but still quite beautiful and pearly), is quite legible and nice.  

A Sample of  my pearly writing

Ball point pens were allowed in my school from standard VIII. I had a book called Luxor Book of Writing (which was borrowed by a friend 14 years back, I am still waiting for it to find its way back to its true abode), which talked of how writing evolved, what can one do to improve writing, different writing tools etc. It was a very engaging book and an unusual topic to be written about. This book talked about taking our pens for a "jog" and the positive impact it would have on our handwriting. This was an amazing concept which inspired me to practise writing a lot.

Pen Jogging

Smudging and Feathering Pen Jog

Another Feathering Pen Jog

I wrote all my major exams from school days until I finished college, using fountain pens. As I was a science student, all my lab records were also written using fountain pens. Any essays and assignments which were required to be handwritten, were again in fountain pens.

Though I use ball point pens a lot, I do write almost everything in my journal using fountain pens. I have quite a few fountain pens and though I love them a lot, I cannot write about all of them in great detail. I will just write about 3 of my favourites. 

None of my fountain pens are extraordinarily expensive. The most expensive fountain pen that I own as of now must be around Rs.350. Fountain pens prices can range anywhere between Rs.25 to Rs.5 lakh or more. All of them are quite practical pens and write well with any ink on any paper. To me, this is the most important quality of a good pen. According to me, no matter how expensive your fountain pen is, it is not of good quality if it needs special inks and special paper to write on. Good fountain pens are those that write well irrespective of which ink you use in it and which paper you write on, as long as it writes legibly. I must admit some of my pens did "feather" but I got them repaired.

 

Most of my fountain pens, owned currently were bought from the Deccan Pen Stores in Hyderabad- either the Abids branch or the Ameerpet branch.

My first and most favourite pen is from Skyglory. I call it my Spaceship pen just because it looks like one to me. This pen has a fine nib, both in terms of thickness and quality. This pen requires ink cartridges. I usually pair it up with green ink cartridge from Schneider. It is my favourite due to its small pocket size and smooth writing.

My second favourite pen is from a Chinese brand- Dikawen. It has a lovely bright red body with a copper band and copper clip, and a dual toned nib. The thickness of the nib is medium. I usually like using Royal Blue or Pink or Orange ink with this pen. It can be used with a cartridge or a convertor which can siphon ink from the pot. Since it has a metal body, it is slightly heavy in comparison to pens with plastic bodies. This pen just glides on paper and brightens up my writing and makes it look beautiful.

Dual toned nib of Dikawen Pen

My next favourite is Camlin Pressa. It is a nice student friendly pen with a nice grip and transparent body. It is a pen that needs cartridge and I use it with blue ink usually. It is a very practical pen for daily use and rough work.

Just in case you are interested, my other fountain pens are from the below brands:

• Baoer
• Pilot
• Camlin/ Kokuyo
• Classmate
• Wality
• Pierre Cardin
• Flair
• Hero
• Parker
• Jinhao

I store my fountain pens in a carton that used to contain a light bulb. I am looking to store it in a suitable pen stand,but until I find it, I am quite happy with the current storage arrangement.

That is it from me now, I hope you enjoyed reading my rambling about the fountain pens.

My Diaries- Part 2

A few months back, I had written about some of my diaries/notebooks and I was not done talking about them. This is a part 2 of the previous post about diaries/notebooks.

This post mainly consists of those notebooks and diaries which are still unused.

Yosemite and Seqouia tree Notebooks:

I picked these notebooks on a heavy discount in a book shop in California which was about to be shut down. I instantly liked the beautiful covers. I thought of carrying these back as souvenirs. Once I got back to India, I got really selfish and decided to keep them to myself. I love the cream coloured paper in the notebooks. The Seqouia tree book is under a big pile of books and I am too lazy to pull it out for a picture. I have them in A5 size. These books have been made with Archival paper and works well with all kinds of pens.

Daiso Notepads

I got these again from Daiso in San Francisco. Daiso is a Dollar Store for Japanese items. So, I got 2 of these for just a dollar. The paper on this one is extremely smooth. It is single ruled and works well with all types of pens. It is slightly larger than A5 size but smaller than A4.

Black and Red Notebooks

These are really good quality notebooks which my brother gave me during my visit to US. I havenot yet used them but I read in one of the Google groups/circles that they work really well with fountain pens. The paper is quite thin so it is almost hard to believe that they are fountain pen friendly. The ones I have are single ruled notebooks.

Picadilly Notebooks

These were again given to me by my brother. The paper colour is slightly (only slightly) off white. The paper quality is quite good. I have not done a test with fountain pens yet. I have them in a size similar A4 size paper.

Five in One Notebook from Archies

I picked up this notebook from Archies in Hyderabad. It is a really thick notebook with about 400 pages which are divided into sections by thick coloured cardboard paper. I was attracted to the beautiful cover (the photograph doesn't do any justice to the real thing). It works well with all kinds of pens. I have it in a slightly longer and slightly less broader than A5 size. This is a nice book to carry dor college goers.

Apart from this, I have the notebooks from Usupso, which I wroteabout some time back. I also have a few notebooks from Nightingale at my mum's place. They are regular notebooks and diaries from Nightingale, which many people have. 

Until next time, so long.....

I'm Back

I had been away for sometime now from the world of blogging. I went away on a vacation, which I will definitely blog about. It may have seemed that I was away but I have been working on several blog posts. It is just that my preparation for my vacation, the vacation itself and work took up my time and I was not in a position to publish my blogs. All I need to do is add in the pictures to all that text I have put down, do the graphics where required, skim through the post once before I publish them. In the coming days, I would be putting aside some time to work on the already composed blogs and publish them. So, the coming days would see more action from me in the blogosphere.

Previously, once my blogs were published, I would also share them on my social media pages. I have decided that I will no longer do that. I have not been very active on social media pages of late as I am not a big fan of all the political discussions that takes place there, by my friends or their friends. I feel everyone feels compelled to take a position about anything and everything (even if it something as silly as a new emoji or a the number of teeth in a comb) and everyone seems to be an expert at everything. While I am completely okay if people would like to express their opinion, what bothers me is the way it is done- unnecessarily rude, argumentative and aggressive. It just puts me off. I would just put up my posts on this blog even if no one might look at it. I think it makes things simple and makes me happy :).

My Pens- Gel Pens, Liquid Ink Pens, Ball Pens

I have been away from blogging for about a month. The break was not intentional. I had been very busy with quite a few things and would be too exhausted to write at the end of the day. I have finally found some time to come back to this hobby.

I had previously written about My Diaries (part-2 coming soon).  In this post, I would like to share my collection of gel pens, liquid ink pens and also ball point pens. Though all these categories fall in the broader category of ball point pens, in my personal classification, they are different as they have different outputs and textures. I also have fountain pens. I would be writing a separate post on my fountain pen collection. 

Gel Pens:

I use a variety of gel pens. I use them for  art work and writing.

Uniball Click Gel Pens:

I usually like most pens made by Uniball (Mitsubishi Pencil Co.). These are my current favourites. Not only does my handwriting look nice in it, but also the colour of the "ink" is so vibrant. I use it for writing notes at work, making lists etc. I have it in 3 colours- Blue, Black and Red. Of the 3, the blue one is my favourite, for the brightness it brings to the writing. It almost looks like it has been written with a fountain pen. These pens have a 0.7 mm tip so the writing appears nice and bold.

Pilot Pop'lol:

These are lovely pens from Pilot. They come in several colours. I have them in Blue, Violet, Pink, Turquoise, Green and Brown. They come in other colours as well. These are my second favourite pens currently. These again are 0.7 mm tip pens. They are lovely but do not have a fountain pen like output like Click gel pens. I like to use it for art work and writing quotes in my journal/notebooks.

Liquid Ink Pens

Uniball Eye:

These are my all time favourite pens. I have these in blue, green, orange, pink, red, violet (though not in the picture), black and turquoise coloured ink. I have them in 0.7mm tips. They are also available in 0.5 mm tips. I use them fo writing, doodling, colouring and drawing. Though I love these pens, the biggest minus is that these are one time use pens and each pen costs about Rs.60 so it turns out to be a little expensive if you want them in several colours. I try to use them judiciously.

Written with Uniball Eye

Some artwork using Uniball Eye

Planning weekend using Uniball Eye

Silly scribblings using Uniball Eye

Ball Point Pens:

Uniball SA-R: 

These have been my go-to ball point pens. I use this if I have to write a lot or on official documents. I occasionally I have them in Blue and Black colours. They are also available in red and green. I have them in 0.7mm but on paper, it looks like 0.5mm. Apart from writing, I like to use them for doodling- 

specifically, because they do not smudge with my kind of writing and grip. In very rare cases, the blue colour smudges but in general they do not. 

Doodled using Uniball SA-R

Camlin Tora:

I bought these thinking they were gel pens. I bought the entire set of 8 with different available colours. However, I do not like these too much. The tips are nice and smooth, but the output is a little smudgy with my writing style and grip which is a put off. I did try writing with them but did not like it one bit. I am currently using them for drawing outlines but that is just because I want to exhaust the ink soon and can dispose the pens. 

Written using Camlin Tora

Storage of These Pens

One one of my trips, I was given a BVLGARI pouch by the airlines. It is quite spacious on the inside but does not take up too much storage space in general. This pouch is currently able to accommodate all the pens mentioned in this post and more.

BVLGARI Pouch

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, as much as I enjoyed writing it! 

A Hundred Little Flames by Preeti Shenoy

I have read most of Preeti Shenoy's books. Some have been good and others not so much. I ordered this book on Amazon during one of their sales. When I want to read something light, I usually pick one of the Indian writers. I usually prefer one of  yesteryear writers. I could not find anything interesting online, so settled for this book and I was so happy I did.

The story starts off with Ayan, one of the main characters in the book, losing his job and moving to Poongavanam (a hypothetical village) in Kerala upon orders from his controlling father. In Poongavanam, Ayan stays at Thekke Madom, his ancestral home where he bonds with his grandfather Gopal Shanker. Ayan soon loves the life in Poongavanam and settles in well while he keeps his hunt for a new job alive. Ayan's controlling father Jairaj, is also a controlling son and is based in Bahrain. The conversations over phone calls between Jairaj and Gopal usually go sour due to Jairaj''s vested interest in Thekke Madom. He hatches a wicked plot against his own father so that the property could be sold. Ayan comes to the rescue of his grandfather and earns his trust. Gopal shares his diaries with Ayan, who learns so much about his grandfather's life through them. Gopal loved his childhood friend, Rohini, pretty much right from his childhood but due to various circumstances at the time, both Rohini and Gopal end up marrying different people but remain loyal and care about their spouses, while keeping their love for each other alive. Both get engrossed in their work and household matters until one day when Rohini writes to Gopal, which rekindles their friendship and love for each other and they become a part of each other. Due to some circumstances, they are pulled apart again. Their story touches Ayan's heart who is determined to at least make them meet once.

The story line is a quite unusual and keeps you guessing sometimes. When Ayan moved to Kerala and it was portrayed that his grandfather was a dinosaur when it comes to technology, I really thought it was going to be a battle of generations. I was pleasantly surprised to know it was not. There is not much of a love story until the time Ayan starts reading Gopal's diaries. The story is just heart-warming and showcases love from a very different perspective, which I feel not everyone can easily understand. Most people label the love shared between 2 people as an affair, but in this story, it is demonstrated to be at some other level. It really shows the basis of love and what soul-mates are.

There are a few other characters in the book as well. Some of them play an important part in the book and others make you wonder why they even exist:

• Shaila- Gopal's daughter. She has a fairly important part to play in the book
• Kamakshi- Ayan's mom and Jairaj's complying wife. Not much to do in the story other than call Ayan to check after him
• Dhiraj- Ayan's "best friend". He hardly has any part to play in the story
• Nishi- Dhiraj's girlfriend who plays an even more insignificant part than Dhiraj in the story
• Shivani- Nishi's friend who befriends Ayan and the 2 talk a bit about their woes. Her part though is insignificant, helps Ayan in rescuing Gopal from the evil trap laid by Jairaj
• Velu- Gopal's humble and loyal domestic help
• Padmaja- Gopal's mentally disturbed wife
• Raman- Rohini's husband
• Shyamala-Gopal's pesky neighbour in Pondicherry
• Nithya- Shaila's daughter
• Akshu- Ayan's brother and really, there is absolutely nothing this character does or brings to the story

Apart from these, there are some people from a local football team (Roshan, Biju etc) who become friends with Ayan.


Now, I started reading this book after I read Dr. Ragab's Universal Language by Robert Twigger. The language in Robert Twigger's book was not complex but the level and standard seemed higher than this one. When I started reading this book, it initially felt like reading a book written by a novice with high school like language. However, as I progressed, it seemed to improve or may be mentally I was able to adjust to it. Barring a couple of grammatical errors and a spelling mistake, the book on the whole was well written. The other thing which was a little odd is that Ayan most of the time addresses Velu as Velu Chetta and sometimes as Velu. I think it is a little unlikely in real life. Also, the narrator for most part of the book, refers to Ayan's grandfather as Gopal or Gopal Shanker but in some parts has referred to him as muttaccha, which is what Ayan addresses him as. These are really insignificant observations and can be ignored in the bigger scheme of things. The language in the book is very very simple and free-flowing. The book is quite fast-paced and a page-turner. I sat up reading this book into the wee hours of morning. The description of Kerala and Pondicherry are so beautifully done that they transport you to those places. I also loved Thekke Madom's description. The book does get a little (very little) philosophical and preachy in parts. The main characters, as in most books by most writers, are embodiment of goodness- which is not a surprise.

I know we must not judge a book by its cover and I am glad I did not this time as the cover on this one is one of the worst I have seen- I mean, with the beautiful Kerala and Pondicherry in the story, there was a lot one could do in terms of cover art. I will be honest, cover of a book does matter a lot. It is one of the reasons that there are covers and not just pages sewn together. Also, usually we find appreciations for the writer or something about the book on the covers of books, such as- "From the author of xyz" or "Clever, funny, witty, modern day drama" etc. However, the only thing they found worthy of putting on the cover is shown below and it does look a little lame to choose to put that on while discarding all the other lavish praise that may have been showered on her in the past . Since it was Preeti Shenoy, I picked it up. I might not have if it was anyone else.

This really looks like she wanted validation from Cosmo that she is one of India's most popular authors though I know that was not her intent- Sorry for being too harsh :-(

The story line was unique and well constructed and kept me hooked. It was just so very beautiful. I would rate this book 4/5. It is her best book after Life is what you make it.

USUPSO Haul

Today, late in the evening, my husband and I decided to go to Jayanagar 4th block just to take a look around. We had heard of a store that sold things designed in Japan called USUPSO and wanted to visit it for a very long time and today just decided to check it out since we were already in the neck of the woods.

The store is not a huge one but sells a lot of things from towels, crockery, fashion jewellery, sunglasses, backpacks, headphones, storage items and of course stationery. Now, I must mention that the things in the shop are designed in Japan but not necessarily manufactured there. Most of the things in the shop were manufactured in China.

If I could, I would have bought the entire store but since I could not, I confined myself to their stationery aisle which had several varieties of felt tip pens, markers and a lot of notebooks. Being fans of stationery, we purchased a whole bunch of notebooks. They were a not too pricy but not inexpensive either. We got a set of 3 notebooks which are slightly smaller than an A5 sized notebooks and 3 set of 2 notebooks of somewhat at A4 size. Each book has about 100-120 pages as per my visual estimation and has off-white coloured pages. The notebooks are somewhat fountain-pen friendly. What I loved about them is the beautiful covers. I loved them all but we restricted ourselves to just 9 notebooks. I hope you love their cover as much as we did. Here is a glimpse of the same.