Pen is mightier than the sword (03-Mar-2023)

Attributed to the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton for his 1839 play – Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy, my attempt here is to present a current-day take on this adage. 

In essence, it signifies that creative writing using a potent language which conveys messages with a tool called pen is indeed more powerful vis-à-vis destructive violence brought about by waging wars with a tool called sword (read weapon).  While the former creates awareness to influence a thought process, the latter creates panic and fear and loss of lives in the ultimate analysis.  You win with logic and peace what you can’t win with fear and violence.  Last but not the least, the pen makes a lasting impression across generations while the sword cannot produce lasting results but puts lives of many in past tense.  On any given day it is so much more appealing to seek the pen route take the creative path.

With a war that has gone a full year, can we believe this is happening in today’s world with all checks and balances in place that are probably out of whack?!  Would it help to write mighty articles about the repercussions of a war, or would it actually help for any one country to pick up weapons to strike the other?  Would time tell us and remind us of the grave side-effects of a war, or don’t we already have pages from history written and chronicled by many to learn from?

Writing for me is a hobby and fades in comparison with my late father’s experience during his early days of writing in the 70s and the 80s.  Later he went on to author many books too.  Back then late into the night, after we kids had slipped into our beds or so he thought, he cherished the silence to cogitate and put forth his thoughts on paper.

Often to his dismay he would shake his head, pick up the sheet of paper with a few scribbled sentences, crumple it in his palms, and then misfire his aim at the poor little basket positioned in a room-corner that consumed his ire.  Next morning it was evident that the basket remained parched but the floor around was a mess!  Yet his published article in the newspaper a few days later was cherished by all in the household.  The cycle of seething in anger with moments of joy became a template at home.

Don’t get me wrong, I do use the pen.  A not-so-expensive dot pen and a piece of paper suffices for me.  I jot down the main points before I turn on my laptop and Microsoft Word.  Any writing that I don’t like, as you can tell, I can’t afford to unfurl my fury on my laptop you know!  At best I can hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to let the system reboot, so I’ve vented my anger on an inanimate object. 

My usage of pen today fades in comparison to the Bril ink days of yesteryear when the careful handling of a filler pulled the ink from the bottle and with equal meticulous effort was filled into the pen’s cylinder, the majestic fountain pen.  Later putting the nib to the paper was sheer ecstasy.  To be honest, no ink smudges is no fun!  Oh, the bygone days!

Back to my father’s indignation which was evident in its full flow the next morning – from the wooden table with ink stains (that refused to go away), his plain white towel with blotches, his white dhoti with ink patches, his sheets of paper with his artwork splashes, which left my mother throw up her hands in exasperation.

Once again from our younger days, when ‘follow’ on social media was not an option – oh I forgot that social media was non-existent – we wrote letters to unknown people in foreign countries and hence the name ‘pen pals.’  We wrote about our own country, our hobbies, our education system, our socio-political system, typical family get-togethers, and thus exchanged cultural nuances.

I ask this question – would our Indian history have been re-written had the leaders of one dynasty-after-another exchanged ‘pen’ letters with each other, not to mention the SMS (Short Messaging System) that prevailed then in the form of messengers who carried scrolls with personal messages?  May be the battle of Panipat (and others) could have been avoided, and thus spared us students who had a tough time remembering the dates of various battles.

Fast forward to today and are we waiting for a new discovery – a sword that springs open from the touch of a button on a writing pen and hence doubles-up as a weapon at times of war?  Or provoke politicians around the world through thought-provoking articles with rhetorical questions to drive home our points and get them to see the world through the lenses that we wear?

Given all the technological advancements we have made, at this juncture I wish the Microsoft Word on my laptop is mightier than most tools!  My smartphone too with a stylus is indeed an amalgamation of today’s technology, a la weapon of mass destruction, to power my creative instincts by allowing me to write on my phone screen.  I will settle for stylus as my everlasting weapon.

If the real intent is to relive and prove to the world that the English author with his old adage is still relevant in current times, I do not mind writing this article using my ball-point pen on a foolscap!  Do I conclude that WORDS from a pen is indeed better than a SWORD – Anagrams have always captured my imagination?!