The Slate and the Pen

A common sight.

A 6 or 7 year old child going to school.

Heavily burdened with a bag full of books and note books.

Lot of stationery material laden on that tiny body. A pitiable scene!

I cannot help remembering the good, old stuff of stationery material: a slate and a clay-pen.

How can I explain that to the present generation? Luckily, Oxford Dictionary gives several meanings of slate and one them comes to my help. According to Oxford, a slate is "a piece of ... flat smooth ... plate used for writing on, usu. framed in wood".

Yes, we used to write on that greyish black slate with a clay-pen.

It was so convenient to write!

If you have written on the both the sides, you could easily wipe it clean with a small damp duster! And lo! It is ready for use again. We would use it for doing Maths sums and also for writing answers of science. No need for separate note books.

We used it till fourth stanadard without difficulty.

We did not have 'note-bookful' of information. We had knowledge stored in our minds.