A Rare Find - Prasad Celluloid Pen

All right…after the Prasad ebonites, here are some photos of the Prasad celluloid FP…I thought I’d do a separate post and not add it to the original Prasad post, because this is a special and beautiful pen…I have seen plain celluloid pens (the Guider yellow and red) and marbled celluloid pens (Brahmam Leader), but this one was unique for me…but I think there are many designs that can be made possible with celluloid…I don’t know how to describe this colour…is it maroon-ish, with a light pinkish tinge?… maroon ‘mosaic’ would be a better description and the pinkish bits look very shiny…the pen looks good to eat…I wonder how they manage to get this design…

The pen is a screw cap ED filler…5 ¼ inches capped; 4.6 inches uncapped and 6 inches posted…the thickness is the same as the Guider celluloid FP…the nib is engraved with the name ‘Iriloy’ and it is an ex-fine nib…the nib also has the letters engraved ‘Ae’ inside a circle…I have been using one of these with Chelpark crimson violet ink and it writes very well…as is usual with Indian celluloid pens, the barrel end is topped off with ebonite…we can see two cap bands, and they are slightly loose in both pens…the cap bands also have a slightly old brassy look…the clip looks like the ‘Parker’ arrow clip with ‘Prasad’ on it…the pens are definitely old, but unused ones…we can see a number of blemishes here and there…

In fact, this is an ‘afterthought’ pen…I have noticed this with pen-makers here that they don’t offer celluloid pens to their customers initially…and if they do offer, it is only one…it might be because they have a limited number of celluloid pens and want most of their customers to have one celluloid pen at least…Mr Jain also offered me this celluloid pen after I had placed the order for the ebonites…so, in that sense, I am lucky…I tried asking for more…I am addicted, you see!…and he kind of gently told me that these are all he had…

Bling on My Blog...

Regular visitors to my blog (I would like to feel that I have loads of visitors...!!!) would have noticed the drastic changes in the page...I binged on gadgets...and added a lot of good natured bling on my site...in fact, I was getting bored of seeing the same old bespectacled mug and pitchers (sic!!!) of pens on my blogsite...and I was fooling around in the layout section and decided to explore the gadgets...actually, I was looking for a 'counter'...but instead, I found a lot of interesting 'gadgets'...and went on adding them to the site, oblivious of the 'havoc' it was creating on the page...I found some of my favourite painters - Rene Magritte, Matisse, Klimt, Jackson 'Jack the Dripper' Pollock, Wassily Kandinsky, Monet, and my all time favourite Dear Van Gogh...I tried looking for my favourite Indian artists, Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Tyeb Mehta, J Swaminathan, Husain, K G Subrahmanyam, and others...but unfortunately, they were not listed there...

Now you can see a new painting every day of these famous painters of the Western world on my blog...and a couple of photographs...National Geographic photo of the day and Nasa photo of the day...and for the poetically inclined, I have a daily Haiku...those succint single drop poems... and for those who want some cogitation, there are daily quotes from some of the most famous and sometimes iconoclast writers...Confucius, Nietzsche, Orwell, and Chanakya...how can I leave my blog without any music...so now you have streaming music...again, my favourite...Jazz...

A feast for your senses...some colour relief for your jaded eyes tired of seeing fountain pen photos...and some 'sukoon' for your ears...some 'masala' for your mind...

Stay as long as you want...enjoy the paintings, music, and quotes...in case you want to add or delete or replace a gadget...drop a line...your comments are always welcome...

Jai...

Watching 'Charandas Chor' at Ravindra Bharati

Two weeks back...on the 5th of November...I got to watch one of the legends of Indian theatre on stage...I watched Habib Tanvir on stage as be appeared briefly playing the role of the queen's counsellor in his iconic play 'Charandas Chor'...this play was a part of the Qadir Ali Baig theatre festival held a Hyderabad...I love watching plays and used to catch quite a few plays during my student days at CIEFL, but of late the travel to and from college has made sure that I return bus-lagged in the evening and so going to plays has become a rarity...so I was in two minds when I got this pass for Charandas Chor...I really had to plan...fortunately, one of our college buses touches a spot near Ravindra Bharati where the play was staged and I could make it on time...the hall was packed and I think most of the audience came to see 'Habib Tanvir's Charandas Chor' and not the play...there was quote a jostle for seats...and a few high and mighty babus were seen looking for seats and they had arrived fasionably late...I tried very hard to get involved in the proceedings...the play was very much up my alley...folk songs, folk dialect, folk humour...all these things I cherish in Indian theatre...I enjoyed whenever I drifted into the play...I enjoyed the melodious singing of Nagin Tanvir, Habib Tanvir's daughter...the actor who played Charandas was really good and brought out the 'hoot' quality of the role...the best part of the whole experience was to see Habib Sa'ab on stage...he is old and frail now and agreed to don the grease paint at the request of Qadir Ali Baig's son Mohammed Ali Baig...and the gesture was liked and appreciated by all...and when he spoke before and after the play, one could see glimpses of his wit and humour...in a extremely unselfconscious manner, he said that he has brought his 'ghasa, ghisa, pita' Charandas Chor to Hyderabad...ha ha ha...

For me, there was another bonus...during the interval, it was announced that a CD containing folk songs of the troupe was being sold in the foyer...I went out to see what the CD was about...it turned out to be folk and other songs sung by Nagin Tanvir...as I had already heard her singing on stage, there was no hesitation in picking up this CD...and I enjoyed a variety of songs...

I had earlier seen a Telugu version of this iconic play and this first-time viewing of Charandas Chor kind of filled a gap in the must-watch list of modern Indian plays...

R(ea)iding The White Tiger

It is two weeks since I read Aravind Adiga's Booker winning novel...when the book was released and I saw it at Book Selection Centre in Secunderabad, I wanted to buy it...it had received some 'interesting' reviews and moreover, he is my country cousin...from Mangalore, Karnataka...the same place where I hail from...and there is an 'Adiga' branch in our family and who knows, he could be related through some roundabout route...anyway, I thought I'd wait till the paperback is released...then Aravind got nominated...then shortlisted...and then he won...now, what to do? no more waiting for the paperback...I bought it the next day...and read it in two sittings...it is a page turner...a different kind of narrative...that means, a simple straightforward narrative...no styles and flourishes...no digressions...and it uses an kind of 'epistolary' style...though not the same as the one used in the early English novels...I don't want to describe the plot or characters here...I enjoyed reading the novel...

I wanted Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies to win the Booker...for me personally, Sea of Poppies is an infinitely better novel than The White Tiger...since I have read both novels, I also feel that The White Tiger is an important Indian novel to have come out at this point in time...it does offer some glee material for some critics...and some sulk material for Indian critics...last week's The Hindu's Literary Review on Sunday carried a longish article on The White Tiger saying essentially that the novel is 'inauthentic'... one doesn't want to start a debate or hold forth on 'authenticity' here...if I can use a cricket metaphor, this novel is a 'reverse swinging' ball...for the ball to reverse swing, the players have to keep one side shining and allow the other side to lose shine and colour... Adiga has tried to show the other side of the shining ball...to say that if only one side is kept shining, the ball has the capacity to reverse swing...

Fountain Pens of AP - Prasad Pens (Part 3)

Once this entire exercise of discovering, ordering, and finally receiving the pens was over, I realised reflectively that the time taken from my first phone call till the delivery of pens was actually to make the pens with the existing material…and this batch of pens was probably one of the last batches of pens made by Prasad Pens…

When you see the photos, you will detect some blemishes, slight pitting, scratches, and so on…but these didn’t deter me from liking them…and again, like all other handmade pens from India, and especially, Andhra Pradesh, keen readers and collectors might detect a number of elements copied from more illustrious international brands, for instance, the Parker arrow inspired clip on the Baby…I dip tested all these pens and most of the pens are good writers and nibs are smooth and feel good to grip and write…

All the 4 models of Prasad ebonite FPs are ED fillers and the nibs have “Prasad – 1st Quality – Alloy – Tipped Fine” engraved on them and an encircled letter ‘A’ at the bottom probably indicating that the nib maker ‘Ambitious’ is the manufacturer of these nibs…if the nibs are actually ‘Ambitious’ nibs, then going by previous experience, these nibs would last quite long…and again, all feeders too have ‘Prasad’ engraved on them…

Prasad Duofold: ED filler…this is the largest of the 4 models the Prasad Duofold can be compared in length and girth to Lamy Safari…
Prasad Major: around half an inch shorter than the Prasad Duofold; compares with Waterman Hemisphere GT in length and girth…
Prasad Medium: can be compared with Parker Rialto in terms of length and thickness…
Prasad Baby: ED filler; the thinnest ebonite FP that I have seen so far; the clip is different though, it is the arrow clip similar to the Parker model clips, with Prasad engraved on it…

Friends…more than acquiring the pens, it was the journey towards locating the pens that was more exciting and tense…at one point, I wondered whether I’d get the pens or not…but thankfully, they arrived minus some promises, but all the same, the search has been eventful…

I keep hearing murmurs and rumours about other already extinct and soon to be extinct pen brands in many small towns in Andhra Pradesh…this is a small effort to rescue some of that entrepreneurial legacy of hand made fountain pens in India…I have sent out feelers to my friends and acquaintances across the state, something interesting might turn up…who knows…

Jayasrinivasa Rao

Fountain Pens of AP - Prasad Pens (Part 2)

While speaking to Mr Jain, I asked him a little bit about how Prasad Pens came about and he told me that his chief pen technician, Mr Poornachandra Rao, would be able to help me. Mr Rao has been working as a pen maker & technician with Prasad Pens for 40 years, he proudly said, and gave me some bits of history of Prasad Pens…

Prasad Pens was started by Mr Taniganti Prasada Rao in 1953 in Tenali, a district town in Andhra Pradesh. At one point of time in history, Tenali was a very important town in Andhra Pradesh known for its rich cultural and literary legacy. Tenali is best-known as the hometown of Tenali Ramakrishna (also known as Tenali Rama), the legendary poet and wit in King Krishna Deva Raya's court. Three canals of the Krishna River flow through Tenali making it a part of the rice bowl of Andhra Pradesh.

In its early days, Prasad Pen Company used to manufacture fountain pens and ball-pens in ebonite and celluloid. The company also made gold nib pens. But, their stock of celluloid is over and since celluloid has to be imported at exorbitant rates and is no longer viable, Prasad Pen Company now makes pens only in ebonite. They have also stopped making gold nib pens because of the increasing cost of gold and total dearth of skilled workers proficient in making gold nibs.

In 1977, the Prasad Pen Company was sold to the Jain family and the family has been managing the fortunes of the pen company ever since. It is clear that of late they haven’t been able to sustain the onslaught of various trendy, colourful, and lightweight ballpoint/gel pen brands and the rapid decline in the use of fountain pens has added to their gradual disappearance from the pen manufacturing scene. One of the signs is that one rarely hears of Prasad Pens. Let alone Andhra Pradesh, even most of the residents of Tenali don’t know that a fountain pen company exists and is struggling for survival in their midst.

I waited for a long long time after placing the order for the pens to be delivered…and finally after innumerable phone calls and almost one and half months, I received the pens and was disappointed to see that the pen I dreamed about most – mottled white ebonite – was not among them…I examined the other pens and they were uniformly good…the clip, nib, and feeder all had the ‘Prasad’ imprint on them, making them exclusive…I later spoke to Mr Jain and he said that they couldn’t get the material for the mottled white pen and therefore were not able to make it…the Duofold (it may not look like ‘the’ Duofold’, but it is what Mr Jain calls the pen) is the largest (both thickness and length) of the 4 models and the ‘Baby’ is the thinnest…in fact, it is the thinnest ebonite pen I have seen so far…

Fountain Pens of AP - Prasad Pens (Part 1)

It was a PM by Hari in my mail box on Fountain Pen Network that sent me on this hunt. In the PM, he sent me a URL which mentioned the name of a pen brand in Andhra Pradesh called Ashoka Pens based in a town called Tenali. I enquired at the pen shops in Hyderabad and none of them had this pen and most of them hadn’t even heard of this brand. I then decided to take another route. I teach in a college in Hyderabad and a fair number of my colleagues are from other small and large towns in Andhra Pradesh who have gravitated to the capital city. After numerous enquiries, I discovered that a member of our library staff is from Tenali. When I asked her if she knew anything about Ashoka Pens, she gave me a blank look and then told me that she had left Tenali long years ago and had settled in Hyderabad and that she’d call up and ask her uncle, who lives in Tenali.

After a couple of days, she gave a phone number and told me that her uncle had managed to get in touch with the proprietor of Ashoka Pens and asked me to call the number and speak to the proprietor. I spoke to him the same day and the news was not so good. He told me that he had closed down his pen manufacturing unit almost 6 years back and had sold away all his machinery and stock. He said his pen manufacturing unit couldn’t withstand the ballpoint pen revolution and since it was a small scale industry, almost like a cottage industry, it couldn’t sustain prolonged sluggishness in business. I felt very sad and asked him if he had at least a couple of FPs for my collection and for posterity. He said that even he doesn’t have a sample of the pens manufactured by him and that his friend had taken away the lone FP he had. I continued the talk for a little while more, prodding his memory in the hope that he’d remember some forgotten cache where he had stowed away some pens. No such luck. But he said he knew another pen company called Prasad Pens in the same city and would ask the proprietor if he had any pens to spare.

I had heard about Prasad Pens…Hari had told me that Satish had gifted him 2 ebonite Prasad ED fillers and had also sent me the photos…In a sense, Prasad Pens follows in the footsteps of Ratnam Pens and Guider Pens, who set up pen companies in small towns in Andhra Pradesh…

I waited for a week, and then called the person at Ashoka Pens to enquire if he had spoken to the people at Prasad Pens. He said he had and gave me the contact number. I called this number and spoke to the current owner, Mr Anil Kumar Jain and told him what I wanted. He was happy that someone had taken the trouble to get in touch with him and that someone still used fountain pens in this age. He said Prasad Pens manufactured pens in four basic models – Duofold, Medium, Major, Baby – in four ebonite colours. I was aware of the three usual colours – black, mottled brown, and mottled green – but he said they also manufacture pens which are mottled white in colour. I was fascinated by this. I wanted one of each model and each colour…and I asked him if he had all of them…he said he had them and that he’d send them... I then asked him if he had any celluloid pens…he said he’d check and let me know…a couple of days later, he said he could give me 2 celluloid pens as they were left over from a batch of pens he had made earlier for a customer… I had always fancied celluloid pens and I was more than happy to accept the offer…and then…I waited…and waited…