And then it so happened

“And then it so happened” is not the opening lines of an action packed, on the edge Dan Brown kind of storytelling. Neither does it belong to any of the verses from the Holy Bible. So it would neither shift the ground beneath your feet nor it is going to preach anything into you. Then what the heck is it all about? All of us have opinions about people, places and processes (didn’t wanted to use a technical term here but could not resist the temptation to make it three Ps) around us and often these thoughts linger on for some time and then just fade away. It’s an effort on my part to navigate those mangroves of thoughts and share with you guys the under currents which nurture them.

So very similar to the origin of the line “And then it so happened”. No, not the birth of this statement in English vocabulary but how it came to be part of my own lexicon and ended up being the title of this blog. Long time ago, before the age of keyboards and touch screens, the humble pen used to rule the roost in the corridors of schools and colleges. It is of those times when the pen was mightier than the mouse (it suddenly occurs to me now that if pens used to have been fixed to a notebook as a mouse is to a computer then I would not have lost so many pens through my academic sojourn). Not that their numbers would create any impact in the Guinness Books but just that it was always a matter of grave discussion at home. And then I, both sad (may be got thrashed by the dark forces- parents) and happy (ah! who doesn’t like a new pen), would set out to buy my next pen. The selection process would then begin by writing a few bits with all the pens that the shopkeeper had at his disposal. Usually people try writing their names to check the flow, texture and colour of the pen. Some of us would put down our signature and see how it looks.

A few others would just draw lines, circles and what not. But that’s where I discovered “and then it so happened”. I felt that I needed to write something more, more than just names and signatures to make sure the pen really fits the bill. I didn’t knew about “a quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” (Pangrams: a sentence which contains all the letters in the English alphabet) then so I settled for the modest “And then it so happened”. Don’t remember how it came to being (and I don’t want to put undue pressure on the nerve ending in the grey matter) but it has stuck with me for sure. And now every time a pen needs a closer inspection I always write “and then it so happened”.

Now it feels so apt that I title this blog with the same words which were just as mundane as tap water but really very important when you needed it most. It’s my attempt to payback to those humble words which have stood the test of time and to make sure they become a part of the transition to newer means of communication, just as I have been (from pen to keyboard, keyboard to touch screen, touch screen to motion sensors and also mail to e-mail, e-mail to blogs, maybe who knows, blogs to emotion sensors).

P.S: So what do you guys normally scribble with a pen, the very first time? Comment and share it with me.