#023 CHILDHOOD FETISH

Location on earth : Bapatla , Guntur District , Andhra Pradesh , India, approx. 16' N and 82' E.
Time frame: 1959-62.

We were living in Bapatla. I was studying standard VI.

We used fountain pens to write. They leaked quite copiously from the screws, soiling clothes and books, exposing us to the ire of teachers and parents . Fancy detergents with bombastic advertisements were yet to come up. The mode of washing clothes was mostly beating them to a flat stone .

Steam engines crawled along the Calcutta - Chennai Trunk Railway line. Bapatla was on that line.

My class friends, one day , suggested that we should go to railway station and beg the steam engine drivers for a little grease to apply on the fountain pens. Those were days , mostly of single rail track , and trains have to wait for some minutes for a crossing of the train from the opposite direction. The ordeal for goods trains was still longer, often spreading to hours , as they have to give way from behind to faster and priority express trains.

The steam engine drivers , therefore , had ample time , to smoke and loiter.

We used to beseech ( pester ? ) the drivers for a stick or two of grease, some of whom were kind enough to bestow.

We applied the grease to the screws of the fountain pens , after coming home and see if they were still leaking. They leaked. Grease , was probably not a solution for leaking screws, but our little minds did not know.

The steam engines are a passe , now , in our country.