Recently I came across a facebook post wherein details about some children visiting a museum of local history was reported.One of the exhibit was a small wooden desk which had an inkwell.When children were asked the guess the purpose of the hole in the desk ,they came out with interesting guesses,none of them correct.Of course they were not expected to know about the writing practices prevailing half a century earlier.
This made me go back in time to mid 50's when I was 5 to 7 years old.I felt that sharing this experience would be good for the posterity.
We were stationed at Bareilly (UP) and I was attending Railway School there.We were learning to write Hindi alphabet and had to practice writing them on a wooden plank (called Takhti) shaped as shown below.
For writing we had to use a writing implement made out of bamboo-reed.It was an interesting experience to see the process of preparing its writing edge. Our teacher used to have with him a gleaming sharp knife.We used to go to him one by one with out our blunt-edged reed piece.He used to methodically carve out an edge about 2-3 mm.Then he would make a neat slit to the edge to hold the ink.We called it
Kalam.(See pic below).
Now what about the ink? We had to prepare the ink ourselves and carry an ink-pot to the school.We used to buy some white lime stone pieces (called it Khadia).We filled water into the ink-pot, powder the lime stone pieces,put it into the ink-pot and shake it well and presto!The ink was ready to use.
We dipped our Kalam into the ink-pot and wrote on the Takhti. Whatever we wrote appeared to be faintly visible initially.It was fun to watch the letters gradually turning bright white as soon as the water of the ink dried up.
Using such an elaborate system of carrying Takhti to the school, carve a Kalam and prepare the ink was supposedly to 'improve' our handwriting.
Once our Takhti was full with the letters and the teacher approved it,we would promptly soak a piece of cloth and wipe the Takhti to have a 'clean slate' ready to have a fresh go at it.
Carrying the Takhti was a bit inconvenient.But then it had its own use.In case of a fight with our mates,this proved to be a formidable weapon,both to hit and also as a shield to defend ourselves.In case of sudden unexpected showers,we could use it as an umbrella.
