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…