INK(new)- MASHI Dear friends,
There was a mail to me from member Sri G K Sharma ofiyer 123 group desiring me to write about ink and pens. I had made a posting onink and pens a few months back only, hence this posting is honouring him and istitled as INK(new). Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 24-6-2011. Re-posted on29-12-2020 after editing and updating information. Today I had been to a nearby nationalised bankfor a work. The bank was busy being Monday. I was asked to wait. I found the class IV staff using a date stamp andagain keeping it in the cover, other stamps were simply kept in a tray. Havingmy seat near him, I repeatedly found this action. This kindled me to post onink again. R.Gopalakrishnan 1. Mashithandu While I was studying in primary classes to clean thewritings in the slate the tender stem of a plant was used. The thandu used tobe pale greenish yellow and about 4 mm thick. This stem was taken in small boxetc. It was called Mashi thandu.I am not aware why it is called Mashi thandu, It contains stored wateronly in the tender stem. The first thing coming to me is Mashi thanduwhen talking about ink. 2. Kanmashi(Khol) It is a practice to apply Kanmashi to smaller kidsand many young women also apply it. The Kanmashi is prepared from the condensedoil smoke of gingili oil and made to a paste. Kanmashi is applied by artists in kathakali, Thullal etc. also. Kanmashiis given to sumangalies during Navarathri and after Sumangali Prarthanai amongiyers. I have seen rarely some iyers applying khol. 3. Devi’sbless. Once I was worshipping at Alleppy Mullakkalvanadurga temple. With all care, in my white shirt in hand, the mashi/ chandufrom the oil lamps got applied. My friend from Alleppy itself MrSankaranarayanan was there with me- He said- Don’t wipe. It is Devi’s bliss. At least fortwo years the chandu applied did not go. It changed from black to brown later.Mullakkalgot the name so because of the jasmine fragrance from the Devi temple. Since Devi is vanadurga at MullakkalDevi temple there is no roofing for the sanctum. 4.Mashiyittu nokkuka. (Applying chandu in betel and look) It is a practice in Kerala and Tamilnadu by certainexperts to apply special chandu on a betel and deeply look in to. The expertcould see things in the leaf. He could answer the queries of the personreaching to him about missing things, sex of child etc. Based on this there is a saying when somebody slipsaway or something miss, people used to say mashiyittu nokkiyal polum lanilla. Foreloping the term is used some times. Kindly note-If we peep we can see nothing in the leaf. 5. Inkbottle and uses The ink bottle used to be a transparent bottle ofglass convenient to hold. After ink exhausted, many use to re fill ink frombigger bottles from shops. But a few use to purchase a new ink bottle. Whatever it was, the old bottle had tremendous uses- to keep Mukkootu,kuzhampu and costly oilsin small quantity. It was also used to take urine samples for testetc. The bigger bottle was mostly used to keep kerosene oil purchased fromration shops. It was the days before the advent of engine oil tins. In mostiyer homes mukkoottu, important kuzhampu etc. were kept in small bottlestransferring from large bottles. If at all the bottle break, only a smallquantity would waste. 6. Inks andsmell. Like any other chemicals ink solution too has apeculiar smell. The widely used ink was blue. Black was a second preference.The red was used for evaluation and correction of answer papers and answers by teachers. The green ink hadits own attractions and used in place of red by many. It was used by gazetedofficers to sign. Once I went to a bank manager for attestation ofcertificates in my student days. Then only I could gather they are not givenstatus of gazetted officers. All bank officers use only blue in to sign. He maybe drawing two times the salary of a gazated officer of a Governmentinstitution. 7. Ink andofficial decorum The green ink was used by gazetted officers forsigning. Red ink was used by IAS and above officers for signing. The black inkwas commonly used for documents preparation in sub registrar offices. The blueand violet was commonly used by others. I recollect signing of our officialcheques in green ink only. Thecasher will prepare the cheque in blue ink. 8. Ink andpens In my boy hood days pens were becoming common. Itwas also common to see people write with an ink bottle by the side, writingwith a pen dipping the nib in the ink often. The brightness of letters varieddepending on ink on the nib slightly. 9. Two pens Still, I recollect going to examinations with twopens filled with ink. In the event one pen fail to write or nib createsproblems? Now too whenever I go out I ensure two ball pens arethere. Before signing anything I make sure scribbling some where the pen writeswell and sufficient ink is there. If the pen stop half way in signature? I makesure when I write on instrument and sign, sit somewhere and sign. Especiallyfor clearing instruments, signaturemust have no variation. 10.Collection of pens It was a hobby for me once to collect pens. I usedto keep quality pens with pack and keep them as show piece. Now too I do not use any highlypriced items. This include many things including reading glass. I am not sure why such a habit is with me? Ipurchase a costly glass for reading, keep it in box, once a quarter ensure it’sperfect and safely keep back. Ordinary glasses are normally used. Normally Ikeep at least three pairs of glass. Still misplacing reading glass occurs. I purchase and compliment to friends and relativescostly pens on occasions. 11.Different type of ink pens Today we have ball pens with ink other than normalink pens. We have marker pens for writing on boards, sketch pens for drawingand permanent markers for preparing transparency etc. in my opinion atransparency prepared is better than a power-point preparation. 12. Printingink Earlier we had black printing ink. Later colour inkstarted appearing. For giving different colours the same paper had to beprinted in 5-6- times in offset printers. Laser printers of computer give black print. To getcolour print normal colour printers had to be used. While using colour printersit has to be ensured all colours have to be used all most equally. Otherwise,in colour print some letters would not be legible. Update- Now laser printers areavailable with colour printing. For printing photographs from scanned image special paper and ink areavailable. 13. Capitalpunishment and judges I am told after imposing a capital punishment thejudge does not use the pen any more. The nib is broken by him and put in dustbin. Now too it is practiced. 14. Inking For many reasons like enmity, envious, creating ascene etc. it was common to use ink by miscreant students. It was common to sprinkle ink on otherstudents. To create scene it was common to pour ink where girlstudents sit. Un knowingly they will sit, and when wake up ink would be spreadin the clothing at the back which they will not know. Specially red ink. Thiswill put all to laugh including other girls. There are newer practices now by students. 15. Stamppad ink For taking the thump impression the stamp pad ink isused in addition to signing. A person simply obeys as bhum matu is calledstamp pad. Sub registrar office and post offices still use black pad ink. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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