Dear Savio, Thanks for your response. I would like to make some comments.
-------- Savio Figueiredo wrote: Sometime back I was in shop buying cheap ballpens ( Das ka 10 for Rs.10) for my Cyber Cafe for the use of customers ( as pens are often not returned back); a lady stopped me and after confirming that I am open to suggestions asked me to think about the environment as these plastics pens are just thrown away after the ink is over. I agreed with her. Yes ink pens are environment friendly . Cecil Pinto: I must say I never looked at the matter in that light before. Ok, agreed throw-away pens are obviously bad for the environment. But ballpens with changeable refills? I don't think that the miniscule amount of plastic contained in a refill is that bad. Also some refills are all metal. I mean an average kid goes through 4-5 felt pens sets in a year. All those felt pens are thrown out after they dry up. Now that is serious plastic damage. ---------- SF: On the other side there was a HOD of the Biology Dept at St Xaviers Mapusa; Rev Fr. Palithanam who banned us from using fountain pens in his lab because students would spray ink on the floor/walls to get their pens working. CP: The Rev. Father had a point. In school we were encouraged to use ballpens because we used to spray ink on each other and sometimes on the backs of unaware teachers! Last day of school was an absolute riot. And of course mixing a little cashew juice in your ink made sure the stains were memorable! ------ SF: Other prespectives are 1. I agree hand writing improves with ink pens CP: A commonly held belief. I wonder if it holds up to statistical scrutiny. Experiments I have conducted, though not statistically significant, show that people with good handwriting will write well with either type of pen. In school (and even now) my handwriting was bad even though the first formative years were strictly with a fountain pen only. And I know of young people today who have only passingly held a fountain pen but can write very well with a ball pen. ------------- SF: 2. Ink writing smudges on some paper and in case paper gets wet. 3. Students cannot hide pieces of paper for copying in ink pens as against ball pens. CP: With laser printing technology, and photocopy reduction capacity, this is no longer a problem. ---------- SF: 4. Manufacturers are trying to combine the effects of both inks in gel pens; CP: Not really. I would categorise gel and rollerball as ball pens too as the ink cannot be refilled/replaced by the user and requires a manufactured refill. Cheers! Cecil ====
