Encountering Elmore...Finally...

Hi everybody...

Something or the other is always happening and sometimes one forgets them as soon as the events are over...now that I have started blogging...almost 5 months now...I look forward to 'post' points...I am sure many bloggers are always on the alert for 'post' points or have now learnt that anything can be a post...anyway...three days back, I had this great urge to buy at least one from the second hand bookwallah Al Classic near Sangeet...I went there and decided to look for a book by Elmore Leonard...Vinod always writes about this author and rates him highly for his readability and until I read Vinod's posts, I didn't know that this author existed...when we met briefly at Al Classic sometime last month, he pointed out an Elmore Leonard novel called Pronto to me...I thought I'd buy it later...now I decided to buy it and went there and found it in the same place in the same column of books...I picked it up and wandered around to see if I can find anything else...I found another Elmore Leonard novel called Rum Punch...I was tempted...I didn't know anything about this writer...only Vinod's word for his writing skill...I picked this novel up too thinking that if I find anything more familiar and unread, I will keep this one back...as I was moving away from this stack...guess what...I saw yet another Elmore Leonard novel called Killshot...this was unreal...by this time, I was totally bewildered... I had come for one Elmore Leonard novel and now I had three in my hands...but you can't do anything to a book-mad fellow...I decided to take all three...come what may...Vinod is there, no? but what if he has read them all? and I am sure he has already read all of them by now...Killshot is the slimmest of the three and I started with it...I completed the first chapter today morning...it reads well...I particularly liked the 'dry and bare' atmosphere created by the author...reminds of some American movies where you travel along long roads with no habitation on either side...and you hit upon a lone motel or a petrol station and you come across a monologue spitting type chap...and people talk more with their guns and pistols than with their eyes...so far so good...let me see how the book takes me further... will surely let you all know how the novels are...

Chinese Chakkar - Pendemonium

Hero Fountain Pens - Nibs close up
Hero FPs - Capped
Wing Sung FPs - Nibs close up
Wing Sung FPs - Capped

Hi everybody...

This happened almost a month ago…

I never thought I'd add Chinese Fountain Pens to my collection...but it so happened that I was kind of on the verge of being duped by an FP dealer who quoted an exorbitant variable rate on an FP that I had longed to buy...I did not buy it, not because I couldn't, but I strongly felt that this person was trying to con me and didn’t want to succumb...I was proved right when a fellow FP enthusiast and friend confirmed my suspicions...but I was angry and irritated at this and the next day, like a angry lover on a rebound, I went looking for this shop which stored Chinese FPs...I had visited this shop earlier, almost 2 years back, to buy an FP...I was not into collecting FPs then...I just wanted a nice looking FP...I found this very good looking metal screw cap big nibbed Hero FP and bought it...but that shopwallah also showed me the entire range of Chinese FPs that he had...I was not interested then and did not buy any more...but now that I had started collecting, I thought, why not...and went to this shop...the ownership of the shop had changed hands and another person was in charge...but they still had those Chinese FPs, not the entire range though...and I splurged...kind of retail therapy... (I added a couple of pens to that initial range...Hero 616 and Wing Sung 727 – double pen, purchased with Hari)... some of the Wing Sung FPs are really beautiful... I have dip tested all of them...and currently using 3 alternatively...all pens write well...at least that part is taken care of... here are the photos...and the names of these pens are...first Wing Sung-s...WS 727 double pen (the one in the centre); Wing Sung 608 Blue and Wing Sung 608 Brown (on either sides of the 727); Wing Sung 606 Brown and Wing Sung 606 Blue (on either ends); and Wing Sung 603 Black lines on Blue (the one that is horizontal); then Hero-s...Hero 616 (bluish green body with the arrow clip); Hero 330 (brown body with gold coloured cap); Hero 60 (light brownish coloured body with half nib); Hero 378 (steel cap with black body and big full Nib); Hero 27A (silver coloured body and cap with full nib); Hero 2C blue; Hero 2C gold...

A beautiful looking 14kt gold nib Jinhao has also been since added to the Chinese range…I tried taking photographs of the Jinhao yesterday, the results were not so good…will have to do it patiently…I will be getting 2 more Hero-s…Hari has bought an integrated nib Hero FP along with a Hero 329 FP for me in Bangalore…he will be coming to Hyderabad shortly…but, I have seen this integrated nib Hero FP and it is really interesting…wonder what they will come up with next…

Jai

Ad using Fountain Pens...aiyyam laiking eet...

Hi all...

I don’t know whether to call it an old fashioned ad…but the recent Vodafone ad really warmed my heart…in this age of roller ball and gel pens, it was surprising to see an ad using ink and fountain pens as its theme…that too school students using fountain pens!!! And it is so warmly shot…took me back to those school days back in Mangalore…some of us used fountain pens…the boy in the ad is shown using a Hero pen…and the girl has an eye dropper…and the way she draws in the ink drop to her pen by twisting the barrel was exactly how we used to do… and Hero was a very popular pen then…one, it was a foreign pen, and two, it had a filling system that did away with filling the barrel with the help of a dropper and the possible spilling, staining, etc… it was a common thing for us to help each other with ink drops to tide over urgent ink requirements, just like the boy in the ad helps the girl…Vodafone chaps have used this concept very well to sell the idea of ‘chota’ recharge…

I don’t remember any other ad that uses the ‘use’ part of fountain pens so well…It is a nostalgic ad and it brings a smile on my face every time I see it…I hope this ad promotes and provokes interest in fountain pens…or Vodafone chaps should offer a FP along with every mobile connection…ha ha ha…

see ya...

Jai

Some pleasant surprises...

Hi all…

At last…I’ve managed to come out of the monotony of correcting answer scripts…I can breathe easy now…but you can never say when some new chore would come up… anyway, some heartening news came my way towards the end of last week…one of my research papers has been accepted for publication and I am happy about it…it will be published in Translation Today in their next issue…this journal also has an online version…very good articles on various aspects of translation studies…Translation Today is published by Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, National Book Trust, and Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi…and this publication will be a good testimonial for me…and the other surprise was a fabulous catalogue from Fountain Pen Hospital…I don’t really know whether I’d asked them for a catalogue, but there it was in the mail box…you can’t help drooling over all those wonderful photos of some of the most beautiful fountain pens in the world…I know I can afford only some of the basic models, but all the same, being a novice FP collector, it is good to know that this writing tool has so many international variants and designs…I encountered some names for the first time in the catalogue… Krone… Montegrappa… Taccia… Libelle… Tibaldi… Aquila … Grayson Tighe … Signum…Monteverde… and such beautiful pens…I must have browsed the catalogue at least 5 times now, and still haven’t had my fill…

On the reading front…I am reading Shantaram now…a few pages at a time…but it is engrossing…I didn’t have the time to go full blast, but now I will…for those of you who have read Maximum City, many sights and sounds described by Gregory David Roberts will be familiar…I am not comparing these two books, but Bombay is the soul of both books…that all embracing all welcoming quality that no other city in India has…or maybe nobody has so far explored any other city with such passion as many people have explored Bombay …

Till next time then…

Jai

to check out what happened during the interim period...

Hi...

It's been long...too long...and the intervening days between my last post day and today were unusually hectic...though there were physical spaces in between, there was no mental space...though I chided myself 'you are neglecting your blog'...I really couldn't do anything...a lot of post ideas did weave in and out and I had already started composing a couple of them...I work in an engineering college and and this is the time of the year when their sessions get over...pending internal tests, practical tests, etc., are all being held to close out the academic year...students' attendance is calculated to check for shortfall...and you hear such pathetic stories of academic and aspiration mismatch, misplaced parental hopes, etc...students are pushed into studying engineering just because there is an engineering college round the corner and you can buy a seat...marginal farmers, masons, small time mechanics, small shopkeepers, along with rich real estate tycoons, businessmen, etc., all want their children to become engineers without having an understanding of what it entails to become an engineer... so everybody goes through this misery... I sometimes joke that parents and students dream that at the end of the fourth year, there will be a long queue of software company owners in front of the college and Nandan Nilekani, Azim Premji, Ramalinga Raju and others are fighting among themselves to grab the golden graduates that emerge out of the college...and so this goes on...

I digressed...well...on the FP front, I got a real surprise...my friend Anuradha got (gifted) me a Jinhao Gold Nib FP from China, where she was posted for almost a year...it is exquisite...the box and packaging is so good that you feel that the FP is only an afterthought...anyway...this is my second gold nib FP after the personalised Ratnam 302...I will post pictures soon...the camera is with Shruti and she is on her vacation...I also bought a black Lamy Safari, A yellow translucent Pelikano Junior, and Pelikan P56...these are all plastic bodied FPs...but I bought them all the same...1. for the sake of representation, as I cannot afford the more expensive and classier Lamy and Pelikan models, and 2. I read a lot of reviews on FPN on these pens and they were good...and felt 'why not'... I also bought a lot of inks...I had only Parker-Quink permanent black and blue colour inks...so I went to Deccan Pen Stores at Secunderabad and bought around 8 different colours - Turquoise Blue, Emerald Green, Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue, Permanent Black, Washable Royal Blue, Crimson Violet (all Chelpark) and an unusual colour and name Laurel Rose from Bril...So, now, I have managed to fill up the ink space too...am becoming a real FP addict...not nice, beta...I have also done up the extreme end of our glass shuttered book case into a FP case...looks good now...I have showcased my faves here...I think, I am doing this to show off...hopefully not...I will post pictures of this too...

Till then...ciao...

Diary of an evening hunting fountain pens with Hari in Hyderabad - Part III - Postscript

Hi…

This is part III of the Legendary Series of Reminiscences on that memorable Monday Evening in Hyderabad…

So much for grand openings…this is more in the form of a postscript…and also to fulfil the promise I made in part I that there would be part II and III…and Hari responded saying that he is looking forward to part III…

After I posted part I, I mailed Hari asking him to see whether my memory had served me well…he had comments on both part I and II and I realised how I had floundered ... he also asked me whether I could edit the posts to make the changes … I thought about it and felt that they should stand as they are as a testimony to my fluctuating concentration or attention span… Hari was actually giving me a detailed commentary on the pens that we saw that evening … I thought the term ‘no nonsense’ pen for the Sheaffer FP that he gave me was Hari’s creation … and mentioned this in part I, because whenever he said it, there was a smile on his face…it is such a straightforward pen that I thought Sheaffer did not bother to give it any fancy name and ‘no nonsense’ was an apt name for this pen and not unlikely for an FP expert like Hari to refer to this pen by this name … and I did not see this pen anywhere in their catalogue… Hari pointed this out to me saying that these pens are indeed called ‘no nonsense’ pens for their ‘no nonsense’ functioning… I should have checked on the Internet…I did so subsequently and discovered that this Sheaffer FP was indeed called ‘No Nonsense’ pen and many brief reviews commended these pens for their writing quality… and I read a description of this pen on the Internet that says …“The nice thing about No Nonsense pens is that they truly are no nonsense pens and write first time, every time, very reliable.” … of course, these pens are not that easily available in the market, and I happily discovered that the pen that accompanies the Sheaffer beginner’s calligraphy set that I have is actually the ‘No Nonsense’...

There are some more corrections to be made … again Hari pointed them out … the Hero FP I purchased that day is not Hero 100 but Hero 616 which has a steel nib… it is engraved on the cap…I should’ve checked, no? …and it is a clone of Parker 51… the Hero 100 actually has a gold nib and is a clone of Parker 61 … that means I was not paying attention … the Wing Sung now… I had written that I had forgotten the name of the model of which this Wing Sung is an imitation … again, Hari has helpfully pointed out that this Wing Sung’s encircled nib or round nib is a direct imitation of the Sheaffer’s Triumph Nib and he also added something, which is pretty obvious about this pen and which I had overlooked …this Wing Sung is known commonly as the ‘double’ pen because the special thing about this pen is that it also has a mini ball pen at the barrel end ...

I had, in a cavalier fashion, mentioned that we saw a gold-plated Parker Sonnet FP with a gold nib…without mentioning the name of the model… Hari had told me the name, and again I was not paying attention…Hari says, “The Sonnet that we saw was the Cascade model and it has a solid 18K gold nib”… and the other ‘sober’ looking Parker model that Hari had suggested that I buy is Parker Sonnet Fougere… he had mentioned this too… …I should have taken down all these details… I feel suitably embarrassed…for making so many mistakes… and I also feel happy that if Hari hadn’t pointed out all these to me, I would have remained ignorant of the errors that I’d made…now, hopefully, these will stay stronger and longer in my memory…

Thanks Hari … I am a willing student when it comes to learning more about FPs … be my teacher …

Jai

Diary of an evening hunting fountain pens with Hari in Hyderabad - Part II

Hi World...
Continuing from where I left off in the last post...

On our way to Abids too…we were continuously chatting about pens…I have never listened to or spoken so much about fountain pens ever…and it was a real learning experience for me…we talked about various models…the pros and cons of international brands…Sailor (Hari had a Sailor gold nib pen with him and it looked stunning…I tried it out later at DPS Abids…makkhan jaisa smooth hai, bhai)… Waterman…Parker…Ratnam…Pelikan…Guider…Advocate…Carandache… Sheaffer… Swan…Lamy…Pilot…Brahmam…it went on and on…at DPS Abids, Hari tested each and every Advocate pen before approving them…it was a lesson for a novice collector like me…he purchased around 10 Advocates…for his friends and other FPN members…even the extra nibs that he purchased were put through a tough test…out of the 8 nibs that he tested, he found only 2 worthwhile…imagine!!...Hari saw that the black ebonite Advocates didn’t look as shiny as the brown ebonite Advocates and felt that they needed to be polished…while the pens were being polished…we went to look at the other pens in the display case…Hari asked the elderly gentleman manning the store to take out a couple of pens…and asked me whether I had them in my collection…one was a Hero and the other a Wing Sung…I said I had 4-5 Hero-s and 4-5 Wing Sungs…and then he told me that this particular Hero (Hero 100) is designed as an imitation of Parker 51…and the earlier Hero 100s came with a 14k gold nibs…going by the price that I paid for this Hero 100, I don’t think it has anything more than a steel nib…Hari also said that this particular Wing Sung with the round (encircled?) nib is also an imitation of a model of another well known brand (I forget the name…stupid of me…)

I realised that I have a lot to learn and understand about FPs…Hari could spot these models from distance…a keen eye is also required, I felt…we then asked the price, and when the price was quoted, Hari asked me to pick these two pens up, if they are not in my collection…I did so, and anyway, I was looking for a Wing Sung with the encircled nib…so, two down…when Hari was being shown his Advocates, I noticed an unusual orange coloured Ebonite Advocate (because Ebonite pens are usually found in slight shade variations of the basic mottled green, mottled brown and full black)…my heart went dhak dhak…I waited for a while and wilted…3 down…it was already 9.00 PM by then…we finished our tryst with DPS Abids and came out with our packages…Hari told me that there is another pen shop in the vicinity called J K Pen Stores…they might have some ebonites…we went there, and they had two ebonites of some brand called ‘woodex’…never heard of them…they had a gold plated Parker Sonnet gold nib…it was not totally unaffordable…the gold plated exterior looked too shiny and flashy…Hari suggested that I buy a sober looking Parker Sonnet, which is available at William Penn Stores, Bangalore…this chap had a good collection of Sheaffers too and a couple of Carandaches…I can’t afford all these now…after generally enquiring about discounts, we left the shop…it was 9.30 PM by then…our thoughts returned to more mundane matters like hunger and thirst…and we realised we were thirsty and hungry too…Hari purchased a bottle of water and we decided to go to Kamath near Clock Tower, Secunderabad for dinner…it was 10 PM by the time we reached Kamath and we discovered that they had wound up operations…the only available nearby option was an Udipi self-service hotel…we went there and had set-dosa for dinner…from there till the RTC bus stop at Secunderabad station…more talk about FPs…and finally…there was a bus waiting for Hari to take him back to ECIL … and I saw him off there and waited for a bus to take me home…

This was one of the memorable days when I just let myself go...and indulged in my hobby... thanks a lot Hari...hope to see you in Hyderabad more often...

Jai