The ideal way of becoming familiar with these sounds and letters is to spend 15-20 minutes each day on the written exercise, and one minute at a time 15-20 times throughout the day with the flash cards. 22° 2.5mm J V, 6 Pens with nibs pre-ground to the correct angle are not generally available, so start with an inexpensive calligraphy fountain pen (Schaeffer, Platignum, etc.) and file the end of the nib to 22° as shown. File across the nib (in the sketch, into the paper) and finally remove the sharp edges by 'writing' on 1000-grit water paper on a firm flat surface. You will find that a broad nib (Ri2.5mm) is best for practising the forms of the letters, and a much narrower nib (Ri0.6mm) for normal writing. As a very rough guide the nib width should be | of the overall height of the 3T character, and the thickness of the nib about of the width. 6 Here are the first six devanagari characters to practise. They are the short (hrasva) and long (dlrgha) measures of the three primary vowels. The transliteration of the first row is a a, the second i T, and the third u u.
