A Trip Down Nostalgia Lane

love stationery shops. I always have. I remember that when I was in school , I used to love going to the stationery shops in Diba Fujeirah. That’s where I lived then. My father was a civil engineer working for the Sultanate of Oman. We were there for nearly ..hmmm… 8 years..so that’s like a second home to me .
As a civil engineer , my father’s assignments were more to do with the development of the community so it was always in a developing community that he was posted in. We were in a place called Bayah. I remember when I first first went there , I was 7 years old, and the roads were not laid yet …well not completely and Appa was given a Mazda “pick-up” van at work. When we were picked up at the airport by one of Appa’s friends, I asked him, why were going home in a “lorry” a common name for trucks. How my parents laughed!! I don’t remember too much about those first few months but that memory kind of stuck.
We had to travel to Diba Fujeirah for all our needs back then..groceries, vegetables..anything even STD phone calls. And I loved going there. My sister and I would sit in the back of the car…listening to my parents’ talk about what they need to do that day ,news about relatives back home , friends and I remember feeling really really secure and happy . We used to doze off on our way back home and Appa used to half carry ,half drag me(I was a very healthy 7 year old) into the house.
These trips have always held a certain amount of fascination for me..I don’t know why.. even as I grew up. My father would always take us to the stationery shop. The proprietor was a friend and used to spend around 20 minutes there. My sister would find something to read or she was content to listening to my father talk to Moosa Uncle. I can still see her.. holding Appa’s hand ,leaning on him and listening to them talk. Me…. I loved the shop.m I would spend the entire 20 minutes pottering around the shop trying all the pens and deciding which ones I liked the best . I loved…still do..the love of new paper .I used to touch all the notebooks and feel them and the people at the shop were really kind and they would just let me be.
In my 7th standard, I remember a friend of mine had a pencil case filled with pens. I used to love sitting with her and just look at all the pens and boy!!! Was there a collection. There was every kind of pen imaginable from the humble Reynolds to the Ubre Cool Pierre Cardin. I used to go gaga over these pens. She was a really nice person ,this friend of mine. Every time she got a new pen she would show it to me and let me try it. I used to have a lot of fun. She had pens with regular covers, pens that you would have to twist to open, slide to open , pens with different coloured tips …. I was totally fascinated. My parents were pretty much of a one pen at a time kind and we always got pretty regular pens you know. No complaints now....knowing my track record for losing stuff..i would have done the same thing in their place. However the first thing that I got for myself when I got my first salary was a Pierre Cardin pen.