A friend of mine gave me news of a surprising and pleasant nature while chatting last week...she directed my attention towards an album by a singer named Raghu Dixit... I had seen this album in my favourite music store in Hyderabad, Sangeet Sagar, but for some reason did not pick it up...what with young singers releasing albums at the drop of a hat, I didn't have the patience to even check out the names of the tracks... while directing my attention towards the album she said that Raghu Dixit has sung two Kannada tracks in the album...she obviously knew what to say so that I'd move expectantly towards the album...'Kannada tracks' caught my attention...I had to listen to this album...but I did not have the time to go Sangeet Sagar, but she had also helpfully given me the url of a site which had limited time downloads of tracks, so there I went and first checked the names of the tracks...and to my great surprise and delight, the two Kannada tracks were songs written by Santha Shushunala Sharief...a sufi saint, highly respected and popular for his mystical and metaphysical songs... Santha Shushunala Sharief's songs were made popular in Kannada by Dr N S Lakshminarayana Bhatta, who unearthed and researched most of Santha Shushunala Sharief's songs and Sri C Ashwath, who sang them with emotion and great verve, so much so that C Ashwath's voice became synonymous with Santha Shushunala Sharief... so, with all this at the back of my mind, I waited to listen to 'Sorutihudu maneya maaligi,' an extremely popular song...the opening of the song is superb...with thunder and rain and rain drops falling...in tune with the opening line 'Sorutihudu maneya maaligi...agnandadinda....sorutihudu maneya maaligi' which means 'the roof of the house is leaking...with ignorance'...then Raghu Dixit comes on with his soaring vocals... I was hooked... the music is superb... and the other Kannada track 'Gudugudiya sedi nodu' was equally superb... the songs doesnt take away anything from the initial popular renditions by Ashwath...in fact, Raghu Dixit's interpretations enhance the songs and take them to a different level...
I am sorry Raghu Dixit, I didnt pick up this album when I saw it... I will pick it up soon...thank you for bringing Santha Shishunala Sharief that much more closer to the contemporary Kannada youth...
Jayasrinivasa Rao
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Chutney Music...my experiences-IV
In the initial days of listening to Chutney Music and reading web-based articles, I had this great urge to write a scholarly article on this…all kinds of ideas were hopping around in my head…making connections…trying to give it an attractive title and sub-title and a good opening paragraph…and after listening to the D’Bhuyaa Saaj concert, I was enthused and pepped up and made several tentative openings…I wanted to situate Chutney Music in the midst of various India Diaspora musics, the most famous example being the Asian Underground Music scene in England with its mixture of Bhangra, Indian classical, and electronica…and as I was also listening to loads of Asian Underground bands and individual artistes, this was a natural kind of inclination…
But the one issue that caught my attention was the question of identity… and this was triggered off by Ajeet Praimsingh’s comments…we were discussing Chutney Music and then Ajeet Praimsingh related an incident… “yesterday I went to ma hotel room and switched on my TV, maan, and was watching songs…and I see this maan singing on TV…Lotay La… maan…he has taken our song, maan, he was singing our song, maan…” Initially, I did not understand what he said…then it dawned after a couple of seconds… those days, a bhojpuri style song and music video was a rage on TV music channels for a brief while…called ‘Lootela,’ it was a lavish music video in the remix style, done quite well actually with Urmila Matondkar as the focus of attention, and the actors too did their job well and the singer himself, called D' Raja, appeared on the video singing the bhojpuri style song (see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVOo_JgvBng) … I tried to figure out Ajeet Praimsingh’s statement and realised that he was talking about a Chutney song that became a mammoth hit in the 1960s-70s in Trinidad and catapulted the singer Sonny Mann into instant fame…the song was called ‘Lotayla’… (catch the song here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOcH3NbzupM; though it appears in youtube, there is no video here, only the song sung by Sonny Mann, but this is a later version, sung along with Denis Belfon and General Grant, which is actually a Soca; but you can see the similarities and differences)… and this was what Ajeet Praimsingh was referring to when he said, ‘he has taken our song, maan…’ it sounded amusing then, and then I thought about it and felt that this posed an interesting question… the question of the song’s identity … Whose song is it anyway? Where did the song originate from? Where did it go? Who took it there? Whose song is it now? Who does it belong to?
I am still searching for answers…
But the one issue that caught my attention was the question of identity… and this was triggered off by Ajeet Praimsingh’s comments…we were discussing Chutney Music and then Ajeet Praimsingh related an incident… “yesterday I went to ma hotel room and switched on my TV, maan, and was watching songs…and I see this maan singing on TV…Lotay La… maan…he has taken our song, maan, he was singing our song, maan…” Initially, I did not understand what he said…then it dawned after a couple of seconds… those days, a bhojpuri style song and music video was a rage on TV music channels for a brief while…called ‘Lootela,’ it was a lavish music video in the remix style, done quite well actually with Urmila Matondkar as the focus of attention, and the actors too did their job well and the singer himself, called D' Raja, appeared on the video singing the bhojpuri style song (see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVOo_JgvBng) … I tried to figure out Ajeet Praimsingh’s statement and realised that he was talking about a Chutney song that became a mammoth hit in the 1960s-70s in Trinidad and catapulted the singer Sonny Mann into instant fame…the song was called ‘Lotayla’… (catch the song here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOcH3NbzupM; though it appears in youtube, there is no video here, only the song sung by Sonny Mann, but this is a later version, sung along with Denis Belfon and General Grant, which is actually a Soca; but you can see the similarities and differences)… and this was what Ajeet Praimsingh was referring to when he said, ‘he has taken our song, maan…’ it sounded amusing then, and then I thought about it and felt that this posed an interesting question… the question of the song’s identity … Whose song is it anyway? Where did the song originate from? Where did it go? Who took it there? Whose song is it now? Who does it belong to?
I am still searching for answers…
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Chutney Music...my experiences-III
Princess Priya Kelly in the foreground, on the right sitting on the floor is Rasika Dindial
You can see Rakesh Yankaran on the Harmonium to Rasika's right on the floor, and Surender Ramoutar on the Steel Pan standing between Rakesh and Rasika
My best experience with Chutney Music came in February 2005 (14th Feb 2005 to be exact). I heard from Shruti that a series of Indian Diaspora music concerts were being held at University of Hyderabad and that a group from Trinidad has come…I couldn’t hide my excitement…Shruti and I reached the venue almost an hour before the scheduled start…and on the steps of the auditorium I saw a man in a distinctly colourful shirt chatting with a group of students…I too sat down to listen and discovered that this man was part of the music group called D’Bhuya Saaj [a bhojpuri term meaning ‘sitting on the ground (bhuyaan) and singing/entertaining (saaj)’] from Trinidad which would be performing that day…
I still remember…we were talking and I told this man that I had visited a site called www.ajeetpraimsingh.com and learned a lot about Trinidad and Indo-Caribbean music...about Dhantal…about Doubles...about this person called Ajeet Praim Singh, an industrious merchant and music producer who is working hard to keep Indo-Trinidadian traditions alive in Trinidad...the music of Kabir Das…and he said ‘it is myself’...I was stunned and surprised and delighted and clasped his hand …it was totally unexpected and it turned out that he was the manager of the group and also was on stage with the shak shak…I spoke to him for quite some time about chutney music and it was a delight to hear the sing song West Indian English…he urged me to write a book… ‘you write a book, maan’…
After we talked, I entered the auditorium and to my surprise, saw that Dr Helen Myers was also there...I had read her book and here she was in person and I couldn’t believe my luck that day...the entire Diaspora music concert series was organised as lec-dems with one expert talking about the music before the actual performance and Helen Myers was the expert for Chutney Music…she was one of the earliest to write about chutney music and according to the person who introduced her, Dr Myers has followed the Bhojpuri Diaspora around the world and has researched, written about and recorded their music in such distant lands as Fiji, Mauritius, and of course Trinidad and Guyana…I could speak to her briefly and told her about my interest…she was happy to know that I had read her book and gave me her e-mail and asked me to keep in touch…
And then the music began ...it was mind-blowing...a live chutney music performance at my doorsteps literally!! I heard and saw famous names like ‘D’ Rani Rasika Dindial, ‘D’ Raja Rakesh Yankaran, Lily Ramcharan and just like any Bhojpuri song performance in India, the group also had a dancer, ‘Princess’ Priya Kelly… who came in on some songs and danced in typical thumka style (for quick reference…‘beedi’ and ‘namak ishq’ songs in Omkara!!!) which had the audience roaring in approval… I had heard Rasika's song on tape and it was so nice to hear her live on Lazy Man, her mega hit of the late 90s…Rakesh Yankaran sang a devotional song ‘ganga jamuna saraswati’ at the beginning and also his most famous Mousie … and also Dholak Baje… Lily Ramcharan sang The New Dawn, a song written to mark the arrival of the first Indians in Trinidad…and talks about the trials and tribulations and progress made by them… and the group also sang some typical crossover chutney soca songs like Lover Boy, Lazy Man and we also heard typical Tan singing by Rakesh Yankaran who sang Savari Surat, a devotional Trinidad style thumri…
The live sounds of Dhantaal, Dholak, Steel Pan Drum…and the other members of the group Molly Ramcharan, Devarnand Nagessar, Rishi Ragbir and Jagdeo Deebaram (on Dhantaal and Dholak…in fact all singers took their turns with the Dhantaal…) Surender Ramoutar (steel pan)…and of course, Ajeet Praim Singh on the shak shak… and all of them were moving and dancing on the stage and it was infectious…they urged the audience to come on and dance on stage…I had half a mind to go, but didn’t see anybody else volunteering and so suppressed my urge to dance with a live chutney band….maybe sometime in future when I go to Trinidad, I will muster enough courage to go on stage and dance to chutney tunes…
And the icing on the cake… ever the entrepreneur, Ajeet Praim Singh had brought some chutney music CDs produced by him and I hadn’t forethought this…Shruti and I fished around in our wallets and pockets and pooled together enough to buy 3 CDs ... of my favourite singers that day...Rasika's and Rakesh's and the special CD on India Arrival Day...
It was truly a memorable evening for a chutney fan… I didn’t have a digital camera or any camera at that time, but I wanted my readers to have a feel of the performance and so I searched the net and found some photos in online editions of newspapers of their tour in India and I have pasted a couple of photos of the D’ Bhuyaa Saaj performances in India (they performed in 7 cities in India)…these are 2 photos of ‘Princess’ Priya Kelly dancing with other members of the group in the background…
More to come…ha ha ha…
Jayasrinivasa Rao
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Chutney Music...my experiences - II
I was getting more and more interested in chutney music and located a lot of samples on the Internet, some of which I could download and listen… I enjoyed listening to the swinging rhythms and the West Indian accented Hindi lyrics sometimes interspersed with English lyrics… I wanted to know more about this wonderful music from India which had taken root in alien soil and had grown into a totally fascinating flowering tree… happy to incorporate influences and yet retaining its basic core… my friends helped me in acquiring books on Chutney Music…and so I read Helen Myers’ Music of Hindu Trinidad: Songs from the Indian Diaspora (The University of Chicago Press)…but unfortunately, I was not able to get the CD of songs which accompanied this book…
The next book that I read was Peter Manuel’s East Indian Music in the West Indies: Tan Singing, Chutney, and the Making of the Indo-Caribbean Culture … as is my usual practice, I had harangued my friend Vijay in the US to send me this book, as I didn’t want to miss the CD that accompanied this book… the book was riveting and I read it in two instalments…Peter Manuel has given a detailed historical and musical account of chutney music and his writing style is very engaging…but the most enthralling part was in the music in the CD…Manuel has written about and included songs that are part of what Indian-West Indians call Tan singing…this is a repertoire of songs, basically religious, that the Indians have nurtured and developed into a kind of ‘classical’ music, as opposed to the more ‘popular’ chutney music…
The next book that I read was Peter Manuel’s East Indian Music in the West Indies: Tan Singing, Chutney, and the Making of the Indo-Caribbean Culture … as is my usual practice, I had harangued my friend Vijay in the US to send me this book, as I didn’t want to miss the CD that accompanied this book… the book was riveting and I read it in two instalments…Peter Manuel has given a detailed historical and musical account of chutney music and his writing style is very engaging…but the most enthralling part was in the music in the CD…Manuel has written about and included songs that are part of what Indian-West Indians call Tan singing…this is a repertoire of songs, basically religious, that the Indians have nurtured and developed into a kind of ‘classical’ music, as opposed to the more ‘popular’ chutney music…
So, you have Trinidadian/Guyanese/Surinamese thumris, bhajans, tillanas, holis, dhrupads, and ghazals as part of this Tan singing…for people familiar with Hindustani classical music, these genres mean something specific, but when you listen to Tan singing, you realise that these genres have taken a life of their own with little or no connection at all to the genres of the same name in Hindustani classical music…they have built a separate repertoire of ‘classical’ music with remembered music and developed these genres as years went by…Manuel quotes Trinidadian sitarist, composer, and music authority Mangal Patasar, who once remarked about tan-singing, “You take a capsule from India, leave it here for a hundred years, and this is what you get.”
More to come...
Friday, October 10, 2008
Chutney Music...my experiences - I
It must be sometime in 2004 or so…that I heard about chutney music as the music of Indians living in Trinidad…and then began my deep interest in this music…I scoured the internet in search of information and samples…I got a considerable amount of information and some articles and details about books…and for the first time, I heard the music…it was Bhojpuri songs with a twist…a tangy twist…what they called ‘chutney music’…as tangy as chutney…I then discovered that this music is prevalent in Guyana and Suriname too…that is, wherever Indians were taken in the Caribbean as indentured labourers in the 19th century by the British (pl read Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh)…so, what is chutney music? A lot has been written on this subject by many experts and researchers…so let us say that chutney music is the music of the Indians in Trinidad, Guyana, and Suriname…basically songs of the area around Uttar Pradesh and Bihar known as Bhojpur, now famous all over India as Bhojpuri songs… so what is so special about this?
When the people from this area were taken to these Caribbean islands as indentured labourers, the only imperishable items that they could take with them were their songs…and in an alien land with alien people in the sugarcane fields, singing their songs was the only solace at the end of the day…these songs were the only links to their motherland that they had left behind…these sings sustained them and their families and when slowly and surely their financial situations improved and the second generation of Indians began to flourish in these distant lands, these same songs became songs of celebration and of identity… and over a period of time local musical elements also started influencing chutney music… even the religious and ritual songs began to sung with an upbeat tempo…apart from the dholak and harmonium, instruments which they had brought along with them, chutney music began to use the Steel Pan drum and ‘dhantaal,’ a musical instrument believed to have been invented by Indians in Trinidad, and Tassa drums…Tassa drums are used in the Muslim Hosay festival in Trinidad…so chutney music is now a mix of Indian, Latin American, and Islamic influences…and now a new strand has evolved called Chutney Soca…which incorporates elements of calypso rhythms…and English lyrics…
More in future posts…
When the people from this area were taken to these Caribbean islands as indentured labourers, the only imperishable items that they could take with them were their songs…and in an alien land with alien people in the sugarcane fields, singing their songs was the only solace at the end of the day…these songs were the only links to their motherland that they had left behind…these sings sustained them and their families and when slowly and surely their financial situations improved and the second generation of Indians began to flourish in these distant lands, these same songs became songs of celebration and of identity… and over a period of time local musical elements also started influencing chutney music… even the religious and ritual songs began to sung with an upbeat tempo…apart from the dholak and harmonium, instruments which they had brought along with them, chutney music began to use the Steel Pan drum and ‘dhantaal,’ a musical instrument believed to have been invented by Indians in Trinidad, and Tassa drums…Tassa drums are used in the Muslim Hosay festival in Trinidad…so chutney music is now a mix of Indian, Latin American, and Islamic influences…and now a new strand has evolved called Chutney Soca…which incorporates elements of calypso rhythms…and English lyrics…
More in future posts…
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The Guider Jumbo (XXL!!!) ebonite Fountain Pen
Satish Kolluru had posted a review of the Guider Jumbo ebonite pen on Fountain Pen Network…and I was tempted…and after reading Satish’s review, I decided to get one for myself and spoke to Mr Lakshmana Rao and told him about the review and that I wanted a similar pen...and I received my own Guider Jumbo 5 days later... I liked its looks…it looks really solid…I inked it immediately and it writes wonderfully…I was initially apprehensive when I took it to college as I wearing a white shirt and was worried that with so much of ink inside it and what with our college bus jumping up and down on potholes disguised as roads, there might be some ink-jumps…but the pen held out and both my shirt and the pen emerged triumphant at the end of the day…
The pen capped is 6.3 inches; uncapped 5 1/2 inches; and posted 7 1/4 inches. The clip and the top jewel reminds one of a Parker and the body shape that of a Danitrio Densho pen as some members at FPN have pointed out. The feeder is smooth without any striations like in the Jinhao GN FP that I have. “The feeder on the Guider Jumbo has no fins and has only one central fissure for air,” says Hari, whereas, “the feed on the Jinhao has fins on the upper side flush with the nib.” The nib looks good (as of now) with Guider India Fine engraved on it along with an encircled 'G'...and it is slightly smaller than the Advocate nib (size 10), could be size 9...(Hari reckons that it could be size 8, the same size as Wality 69TL)…
The pen capped is 6.3 inches; uncapped 5 1/2 inches; and posted 7 1/4 inches. The clip and the top jewel reminds one of a Parker and the body shape that of a Danitrio Densho pen as some members at FPN have pointed out. The feeder is smooth without any striations like in the Jinhao GN FP that I have. “The feeder on the Guider Jumbo has no fins and has only one central fissure for air,” says Hari, whereas, “the feed on the Jinhao has fins on the upper side flush with the nib.” The nib looks good (as of now) with Guider India Fine engraved on it along with an encircled 'G'...and it is slightly smaller than the Advocate nib (size 10), could be size 9...(Hari reckons that it could be size 8, the same size as Wality 69TL)…
The pen is thicker than the thickest ebonite FPs that I have...I took some close ups of the pen and I can tell you that it is a collector’s item…you might not get one like it in a couple of years’ time…
Jayasrinivasa Rao
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Slightly longer than the longest...the 2-in-1 ruler black ebonite from Guider Pens,
Some time after I had purchased the 2-in-1 ruler pen (in green ebonite) from Deccan Pens, Hyderabad (posted earlier), I was browsing the net and hit the usual pen sites…I saw that Guider Pens had renovated(?) their site and it was looking much better…they now had moving images on their masthead…and one of the images was of the 2-in-1 ruler pen in mottled brown…I wanted a FP-BP combination so that I could use a red ink refill for the ball pen and fill the FP with black or blue ink…as I had purchased a ready-made 2-in-1 pen @ Deccan Pens which had FPs at both ends, I had no choice then…
I teach in a college and there are frequent tests and many occasions for me to use red ink…and sometimes the answers are so exasperating that I indicate my state of mind and inflict great force on the pen and paper while correcting answer scripts… I tried this with a FP and ended up with a damaged nib… I then felt that a BP would be ideal for such purposes…but I wanted something unusual, and decided to ask Mr Lakshmana Rao of Guider Pens if he would make me one such pen… I spoke with Mr Rao and told him what I wanted…complete black ebonite, with one FP and one BP and the BP end should be marked in red to indicate the colour as well as the type of pen… I left it to him to decide the length and thickness…He then asked me to decide the refill model and size that I would be using for the BP so that he can prepare the BP accordingly… I told him that the only BP refill model and size that I was familiar with was the Reynolds 045…and that if he could make the BP compatible with this model, I’d be happy…he agreed to this…
I received the parcel about 5 days later…the pen was dismantled and packed…I put them together…it looked good…I had already purchased 2 red ink Reynolds 045 refills and fitted the ball pen with one of these…the FP, I left alone for the time being… I found out that Mr Rao had very thoughtfully fixed a red celluloid band at the end indicating the BP…it looks very cute… and sophisticated…
The pen is about 14 ½ inches in length and is a couple of millimetres longer than the Deccan 2-in-1 ruler pen…both pens uncapped are 7 inches each…and the middle section acts as a common 2-sided cap and is hollow unlike the Deccan 2-in-1 ruler pen, the capped BP is 9 ¼ inches in length and the capped FP is ever so slightly more than 9 ¼ inches…the nib is Guider custom and so far I have only dry tested it, and it is smooth…should see how it reacts to ink…
Jayasrinivasa Rao
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The Brushed ebonite fountain pen brigade from Deccan Pens, Hyderabad
There is this one thing with Deccan Pens… if you see a new FP model, buy it…you may not see it for a long time if you choose to postpone the purchase…it happened to me with the Deccan Diplomat…I haven’t yet been able to lay my hands on one… Hari told me during one of our pen-cussions that their pen maker is a very innovative person and sometimes makes unique one-of-a-kind pens…and if the pen comes to one of their showrooms and if you happen to see it, grab it! This is what I did with 2 of the 4 pens featured here…
There are 4 brushed ebonite models made by Deccan Pens that I have seen so far…they don’t have specific names and all are called ‘onyx’ and as I had said in an earlier post, they distinguish them by size…I have given them size-wise names…the first photo that you see has all the pens in their capped positions…the smallest one, forming the horizontal stroke of T, I have called ‘Mini’… the largest one, forming the vertical stroke of T, is the ‘Maxi’… to the left of Maxi, with the steel clip and steel cap band, is the ‘Major’… and the one to Maxi’s right, the one with the gold plated clip, is the ‘Mega’…
As you can see in the photos, no two pens are similar… if the nibs of two (Mini and Maxi) are similar (Ambitious), then their clips are different, one has a steel clip and the other has a gold plated clip…Maxi and Major have polished ends, but one of them has a cap band and the other is cap bandless…and if you look at the sections, each one is different…I don’t know what names these different kinds of sections have..
I had purchased the Mega a long time back…and among the four, this is different from the rest in many respects…this is the only one which has a snap cap…the rest are all screw caps…and this is the only one which is cartridge filler, the rest are all ED fillers…the nib, the feed, the section…all are different from the other pens featured here…and it has a smoother brushed feel and look…the other 3 have a rough feel and look… and if you notice, the clip is ‘inspired’ from Pelikan FPs… and I used it for 3 months continuously and it is a fabulous writer… no complaints…
MAJOR – capped 6 in; uncapped 5 ¼ in; posted 7 in; cartridge filler; snap cap; open two tone nib; Pelikan style clip; plastic section (I think) with gold plating at the section lip; smooth brushed feel and look
I am currently using the Mega…it has got that Lamy Safari feel while writing, though the width is narrower…and the nib also reminds you of the Safari…I feel a slight difficulty in screwing/unscrewing the cap now…this is the only pen in this batch that has a cap band, which is at the cap lip…its top and bottom ends are polished…and if you look at the photo, you can see that the clip is curved, unlike the others which are flat against the cap…and this is the only one among the 4 to have the distinctive calligraphic ‘D’ (the Deccan Pen Logo) on the cap…
MEGA – capped 5 ¼ in; uncapped 4 ¾ in; posted 6 ¼ in; ED filler; screw cap; Lamy Safari style one tone nib with no brand name; curved steel clip; Ebonite section tapering towards the nib and ending with a ridge slightly below the nib; rough brushed feel and look; 7 turns to unscrew…
I have yet to start using the Mini and the Maxi…will do so soon…
MINI – capped 4 ¼ in; uncapped 3 ¾ in; posted 5 ¼ in; ED filler; screw cap; Ambitious nib with an upturned ‘V’ nib hole; gold plated clip flat against the cap; gap between cap top and cap visible; Ebonite section tapering in and flaring out near the nib; rough brushed feel and look; 7 turns to unscrew…
MAXI – this is the longest of the batch… capped 6 ¼ in; uncapped 5 ½ in; posted 7 ¼ in; ED filler; screw cap; Ambitious nib with upturned ‘V’ nib hole; top and bottom ends polished; steel clip flat against the cap; Ebonite section tapering towards the nib stopping with a ridge; rough brushed look and feel; 7 turns to unscrew…
There are 4 brushed ebonite models made by Deccan Pens that I have seen so far…they don’t have specific names and all are called ‘onyx’ and as I had said in an earlier post, they distinguish them by size…I have given them size-wise names…the first photo that you see has all the pens in their capped positions…the smallest one, forming the horizontal stroke of T, I have called ‘Mini’… the largest one, forming the vertical stroke of T, is the ‘Maxi’… to the left of Maxi, with the steel clip and steel cap band, is the ‘Major’… and the one to Maxi’s right, the one with the gold plated clip, is the ‘Mega’…
As you can see in the photos, no two pens are similar… if the nibs of two (Mini and Maxi) are similar (Ambitious), then their clips are different, one has a steel clip and the other has a gold plated clip…Maxi and Major have polished ends, but one of them has a cap band and the other is cap bandless…and if you look at the sections, each one is different…I don’t know what names these different kinds of sections have..
I had purchased the Mega a long time back…and among the four, this is different from the rest in many respects…this is the only one which has a snap cap…the rest are all screw caps…and this is the only one which is cartridge filler, the rest are all ED fillers…the nib, the feed, the section…all are different from the other pens featured here…and it has a smoother brushed feel and look…the other 3 have a rough feel and look… and if you notice, the clip is ‘inspired’ from Pelikan FPs… and I used it for 3 months continuously and it is a fabulous writer… no complaints…
MAJOR – capped 6 in; uncapped 5 ¼ in; posted 7 in; cartridge filler; snap cap; open two tone nib; Pelikan style clip; plastic section (I think) with gold plating at the section lip; smooth brushed feel and look
I am currently using the Mega…it has got that Lamy Safari feel while writing, though the width is narrower…and the nib also reminds you of the Safari…I feel a slight difficulty in screwing/unscrewing the cap now…this is the only pen in this batch that has a cap band, which is at the cap lip…its top and bottom ends are polished…and if you look at the photo, you can see that the clip is curved, unlike the others which are flat against the cap…and this is the only one among the 4 to have the distinctive calligraphic ‘D’ (the Deccan Pen Logo) on the cap…
MEGA – capped 5 ¼ in; uncapped 4 ¾ in; posted 6 ¼ in; ED filler; screw cap; Lamy Safari style one tone nib with no brand name; curved steel clip; Ebonite section tapering towards the nib and ending with a ridge slightly below the nib; rough brushed feel and look; 7 turns to unscrew…
I have yet to start using the Mini and the Maxi…will do so soon…
MINI – capped 4 ¼ in; uncapped 3 ¾ in; posted 5 ¼ in; ED filler; screw cap; Ambitious nib with an upturned ‘V’ nib hole; gold plated clip flat against the cap; gap between cap top and cap visible; Ebonite section tapering in and flaring out near the nib; rough brushed feel and look; 7 turns to unscrew…
MAXI – this is the longest of the batch… capped 6 ¼ in; uncapped 5 ½ in; posted 7 ¼ in; ED filler; screw cap; Ambitious nib with upturned ‘V’ nib hole; top and bottom ends polished; steel clip flat against the cap; Ebonite section tapering towards the nib stopping with a ridge; rough brushed look and feel; 7 turns to unscrew…
Jayasrinivasa Rao
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