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