Penciling a pencil's tale!

The pencil is your longest companion. Pens came later in life, and much later, the gadgets. Even now, you do pick up a pencil. Someone calls, and you need to urgently jot down the phone number. At arms-reach, is the stationery-stand. It is cluttered with an untidy mix- half a dozen pencils, outdated pens, and crayon-stumps.

The pencil is the tallest and you pick it up. The rule is crystal clear- “A functional home cannot have a functional pencil!” The first pencil has no tip and must be cast away. The next one is overly blunt that makes it illegible. The following one is sharpened to a pinpoint, but the moment you place it on paper, it buckles at the ankle and the lead-shoe slips off! “Not one pencil will work in this home!” you shoot your mouth off. It is too late- the generalization has inflammable ramifications for the rest of your day!

Meanwhile, you have asked the phone number to be repeated thrice. If all goes well with the pencil, it falls in the “2H” category. "HB" is the most utilitarian type.  The 2B variants are bold and bright and serve the artist’s purpose. The 2H serves none. You never buy them intentionally. Absentmindedly, you pick up a box of pencils, and the 2H comes home. A 2H cannot write- at best, it can scratch the paper.

You can trash as many pencils as you want. However, pencils are tenacious fellows. They claw their way back into the stationery-stand and laze around. The next time you pick up a pencil, it will still be non-functional!

There is surely a nexus between the pencil and sharpener manufacturer. Sharpeners have a singular purpose- to erode the pencil till it is dwarfed to a stub and must be thrown away. You twirl the pencil a few times. You see the tip getting sharpened. One more twirl and you have gone beyond the edge. The tip falls off and you are back to square one! We do not know who is the bigger prankster- the pencil or the sharpener. In tandem, they are double trouble!

Pencils are reminders to a distant past, when pencils were greenish-blue in color or with red-and-black stripes. There was one variety dressed in white with floral patterns. It broke the gender stereotype in the world of pencils!

Students were innovative. They sharpened the pencil at both ends to serve as a double engine! When students day-dreamed, they chewed the pencil-head. There was no need to write your name on the pencil. Each pencil was unique- the pencil-head reduced to the bone and embossed with the owner’s distinct teeth-marks.

You borrowed another’s pencil at your own peril!