On the Big Red trail ... Beginning ...

When I re-started my encounter with fountain pens, this time more seriously, both as a collector and user, the Montblanc 149 was my grail pen …

I checked out the pen at the Montblanc showroom in Hyderabad and the price was forbidding…my god, I thought…then I felt that I should put aside some money every month and then make this purchase…funny idea, actually…the next time I visited Bangalore, around six months later, I went to William Penn and saw that the price had increased by Rs.5000… wow! 

And this went on… now when I look back I realise that every six months or so, the price would increase by Rs.5000 … and more I tried to reach it, it would move higher…wonderfully funny actually… and my obsession to own the MB149 grew obsessively obsessive … I was obsessed … it was obsessing … then I finally asked Hari, who already had a couple of MBs … bhai, any solution that might obviate this obsession … (wow!) … ever pragmatic, Hari suggested going for a pre-owned MB … (second-hand, re …) … I had to bring this to a close, and so I agreed … (story is becoming too long now… going telegrammatic …) Hari contacted a seller in the US … told me the price … I didn’t have money … I took up a collection among relatives (mainly wife, her father, her brother, and sister … nice people … really…)… raised money … pen came by mail …  transferred money to Hari …  I too happy …

Was I? 

What? 

What? 

Were you what? 

What do you mean? 

You said, ‘Was I?’  I’m asking ‘what?’ 

Oh, that … I was merely ruminating …

What about? 

Was I really happy? 

Weren’t you? 

I think I was … I am, aksherlly… proud owner of an MB 149 and all that … but somewhere, I feel, amidst this obsession to own the 149, I actually went after something that I mightn’t have wanted to …

(haen …?) …

Whats with you, maan?  Mad or what?  You chewed up everybody’s brains talking about this 149 all the time … you shamelessly asked around for money to buy this pen … poor Hari ran around arranging this pen for you … and now you say you actually didn’t want this pen at all…? Dhamag karab aayindara, haule …  

Arre, aisa nahi hai re, bhai … kaiku naraz hora … I wanted this pen badly … no doubt about that … and I bought it … but there is this other pen that I realized later I wanted too … it was always at the back of the my mind … under the surface … subconscious … only that I didn’t know it …

Arre, tu phir se sabku haula banara? Ye kya re bhai tu ‘peeche’ ‘neeche’ bolra …

Na, na … vaisa nahin … tereku kaisa boloon … achcha theekh hai, listen, mein tereku pen ka photo dikhaata hoon … it is a big orangeish-red coloured pen with a ball clip … flat top … flat end …

Kaisa hai?  Zabardast hai na, yaaro?  See how beautiful the pen is … my heart is set on getting one …

Then, whose pen is this? 

This is Hari bhai’s pen … photo bhi usi ka liya hua hai … he bought it two years ago and wrote a review about the pen on fountain pen network … dekho, jaake dekho, aur bhi photos hai is link pe …

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/196559-parker-duofold-big-red-permanite/

Pen ka naam kya hai yaaro …

Arre, yeh Parker Duofold hai … pyaar se pen haule isku Big Red bolte … yeh ispeshal pen hai maloom … kitta bhi khojo dukaanon mein nahin milti … baahir se mangaana padta … bohot meinga hai … 

GAMA Supreme Jumbo - A duofold-y ebonite fountain pen from Gem & Co., Chennai

My good friend Hari sent me pictures of this pen some weeks back…I saw the pictures and went ‘wow’… this pen had that kind of impact on me…the thick flat ends design is something that I can’t resist and I go all misty eyed looking at pics of such pens…for me, the Parker Duofold Big Red is the grail pen as far this design is concerned…but that pen is still a far way off for me…

This is the GAMA Supreme Jumbo Ebonite…made by Gem and Company, Chennai…they have a pens store in Parry’s Corner in Chennai…Gem and Co. have been in the business of pen making, selling, and repairing for the past eighty years…impeccable pedigree…and loads of experience and expertise in all these areas….

Gem and Co. makes fountain pens under the brand name Gama…and my friend Hari says, “GAMA is a pen brand in existence from the 1940's in South India.  In the past they had a nice line of Gold nibbed models such as the Gama Kid, Gama Coronation, Gama Manifold and the Gama Royal. In addition to pocket pens, from time to time they also made some hand turned acrylic desk pens in really limited numbers.”

The Gama Supreme Jumbo Ebonite is part of the new line of ebonite pens released by Gem and Co.  The considerably thinner and shorter Gama Junior Ebonite is also part of this new line.  These pens are released through ASA Pens on ebay India and Hari got a bunch of these heavyweights from ASA and graciously gifted me one.  Hari is also an amateur pen repairer and he used that knowledge to make the pen a much better writer by changing the nib. 

To say that I have been waiting for a pen of this shape, size, and performance would be too much…to say the least…but, yes, this is a kind of dream pen…just look at it…the cap jewel is just the right length, one centimeter longer and it would have that tapering look instead of the handsome full flat look…the barrel end in black ebonite ends in a sort of mini peak…not too much…and, maybe it is a coincidence, but if the browns and blacks on the body were any lighter, the harmony between the black ebonite at the pen ends and the black ripples on the body would have dissipated…the black ripples on the barrel and cap kind of flow into the ebonite stoppers…and look at the ripples!!  I haven’t seen such ripples on an ebonite pen in a long long time…it is just so beautiful to look at…!!  The clip looks so nice and balanced and appropriate…no frills…a straightforward no-nonsense clip that knows it is in the right place…no?  For a brief while I felt a ball clip might have looked better…but I think it is my unfulfilled desire (so far) for a Parker Duofold Big Red that made me transpose that feature onto this pen…this pen so reminds me of the Big Red…

Here are some pictures of this handsome pen…

Small Fountain Pens from Andhra Pradesh - The Deccan Lilliput

There is something about making small fountain pens that catches the fancy of pen makers from Andhra Pradesh…Ratnamson has SS in ebonite,  Guider has Kid in acrylic, and both these penmakers have made ultra mini fountain pens in ebonite too…Deccan has its Bullet…and the Lilliput…

I have been noticing this little fellow for quite some time…once at Abids I almost bought it…when I was looking at the pen closely there Umair said he had used this model when he was a schoolboy… I realized that this was an old Deccan model…only that it was ‘out of print’… or maybe it was there all along and I hadn’t seen it…anyway, some days later when I went to Secunderabad, I saw the Lilliput there too and felt I should pick it up…after I came home, I measured it against the Bullet…Lilliput is shorter than the Bullet by 3/4^th of an inch and is also considerably thinner…

Lilliput is a nice straightforward ebonite pen like most of the Deccan pens…it is an eyedropper pen with an Ambitious nib…the feeder looks good with horizontal fins at the lower half, and finless towards the upper half…the ends are flat, but from this flatness rise two small peaks at both ends…nice little touch there…the clip is slim, narrow, and flat and suits the pen well…but there are no brand markings anywhere…

Lilliput is very close to 4 inches capped…3 ½ inches uncapped…and nearly 4 ¾ inches posted…here are some pictures…

The Lilliput...

Lilliput posted...

Lilliput uncapped...

The nib...

The feeder...

Thin slim flat narrow clip

Deccan Lilliput with my favourite MB 146

Deccan Lilliput with Deccan Bullet

Abids on 29th – Part 2 – pens, watches, and ritual…conversation over Irani chai with Vinod and Umashankar...

Vinod said he’d be at their regular Irani haunt and I went there… Umashankar was also there with another friend…and over sips of Irani chai, there took place a very interesting conversation…I was wearing my father’s HMT  Black dial Pilot and Uma noticed it…he had a rare White dial Pilot on…oh yeah, he is also an HMT watch collector and a fountain pen enthusiast…he then started relating an incident where he was visiting a well-known photo studio and the proprietor kept looking at the watch Uma was wearing and that his eyes had followed Uma’s hand as he was talking…and finally, the photographer had to ask…‘is that a Pilot?’…presumably he was also an HMT watch lover… 

Vinod was listening to this bemusedly… and then he said…I can understand people having many fountain pens, one can write something with them, you know…but I don’t understand having many watches…you only look at them…Uma smiled and said the watches that he collects are not just watches, but mechanical watches…Vinod said, what’s so different about mechanical watches, they are like other watches…then I said, I remembered reading somewhere about people using fountain pens, mechanical watches, cutthroat razors, and such ‘classical’ things...people with similar temperaments… one has noticed that, generally, people who like using fountain pens also have a thing going for watches, especially mechanical watches…also automatic…I said, it is a kind of ritual that these ‘gadgets’ entail…that fascinates some people…you wake up every morning and go into these rituals…fill your fountain pen with ink…wind up your mechanical watch…use a cutthroat razor for your morning shave…there are steps involved and also preparation is necessary…and these jobs done with a great deal of concentration...one has to be very careful…or else ink on your shirt…or nick on your face…so, this is the fascination, nothing else, and it has nothing to do with the number…Uma brightened up and said…yes, I was thinking about this…and now I got an explanation… 

Abids on 29th – Part 1 – two books

I think it was the 29^th of September 2013…Sunday…Shuba was in Hyderabad with Teju…Shuba is my sister-in-law and a famous person in Coimbatore…she was earlier a famous person in Chennai…Chennai’s loss is Coimbatore’s gain…she is an avid reader of my posts here and after reading my posts on Abids hauls, she said she’d like to visit when she’s in Hyderabad…so, since she was here, I arranged for a trip to Abids on the morning of 29^th September…but as it happens with famous persons, she had to cancel the Abids trip and had to go elsewhere to meet a friend…sigh…that’s the trouble with famous people…one is not sure of their plans till the last minute…so, since I had already asked Anand, our on-call driver to drive us to Abids and back, I decided to go alone, but I decided to make it a short visit…and the previous day all of us had visited Charminar and I had wanted to explore and buy some things that one finds only in Charminar, but didn’t want to stop and get down from the car ever so often because of the heavy evening crowds and also didn’t want to disturb the delicate balance inside the car, what with two restless kids and their mothers exercising great restraint…with great reluctance…where was I?  Haan…so, on Sunday morning, I thought I’d do a quick trip to Abids, see what I can get in 30 minutes or so, meet Vinod and then go to Charminar…to buy the things I left unbought the previous day…I didn’t disclose my plans to Shruti…the best laid plans of…haan, exactly, that’s why…

I went to Abids and looked around desultorily…to see if something catches my eye…one needs a lot of patience searching for books in Abids...and I was not…particularly patient that morning…but still I managed to pick up two books…sort of companion books…Grumpy Old Men: A Manual for the British Malcontent by David Quantick and its sequel or part-2 or something similar… Grumpy Old Men (On Holiday)…both were hardbound books available for Rs.20 each and I like the British kind of humour…I started reading GOL and it is not bad...and then out of curiosity, I checked the prices online...ha ha ha...one book cost 5.99 pounds and the other 11.99 pounds...here, both books, not even one dollar... Abids I love you... 

Month end twin posts - 2. Meeting Mr Lakshmana Rao of Guider Pens again…after a year and some more…Part 4 – The Guider Acrylic New Raja FPs

Continuing with Mr Lakshmana Rao’s experiments in acrylic…the ones being shown here are the standard size which is called Raja in local FP parlance (I heard the name Raja being used to describe the standard size by many Andhra Pradesh based handmade FP manufacturers during my interactions with them) … these are beautiful looking pens and the blended colours of acrylic gives each pen a unique look…in that sense, no two pens look alike…I picked up the blue and red first and then picked up the amber one too…somehow liked the golden shimmer…

I had mentioned I Part-3 that the White and Red Jumbo FPs seem to be made from acrylic rods…and responding to the post on Red Acrylic Jumbo, Hari mentioned that ‘acrylic is also available as thick sheets which are then cut into square sticks and then rounded on a lathe’… I think these pens below must be made out of acrylic tubes …the end plugs are for that reason I think… must do some research on this…or better, ask the pen maker himself…

Mr Lakshmana Rao has tried different things in terms of design…the blue one is flat topped and flat ended…the red has rounded ends…the amber one has a metal cap jewel and rounded barrel end…the final group photo tells us that all colours are more or less available in these three designs… here are some photos…

Month end twin posts - 1. Meeting Mr Lakshmana Rao of Guider Pens again…after a year and some more…Part 3 – The Guider Red Acrylic Jumbo

This is the third part of my narration of my meeting with Mr Lakshmana Rao and the new pens that he had made…I posted the first two ones almost immediately, and wanted to give some gap before I posted the rest…but I suddenly realized that the gap has become too huge…

Here is the Guider Acrylic Jumbo in Red… the White Super Jumbo in acrylic and the current one are both Mr Lakshmana Rao’s experiments in acrylic with big size pens…one can say that this is his ‘Acrylic Phase’…  the earlier two posts on Guider Acrylic Kid and White Super Jumbo showcased his size related experiments…and it is not that he has not made pens in Acrylic earlier…one can say that he is a traditional ‘ebonite pen maker’… and only occasionally dabbled in acrylic…

I liked it as soon as I saw this pen…it is similar in shape and size to the Guider Black Ebonite Jumbo… here are the photos… 

One can see the increase in translucency as one reaches the cap lip…the dark red becomes lighter…

This was something new to me…this is an acrylic rod…Mr Lakshmana Rao had brought this with him to show me…the present Red Jumbo was made from one such rod…I always thought only ebonite came in the shape of rods and had to be bored to make pens…and acrylic and celluloid came in the shape of tubes…and therefore one had to seal the ends with ebonite or any other suitable substance to make the tubes into pens…so when Mr Lakshmana Rao showed me this, I was surprised and asked him and he told me that acrylic is available as rods too…and when I saw the pen I realized what he said…there are no stoppers at the barrel end and cap end… this is true of the White Super Jumbo too… maybe these rods come in single colours and it is easier to make single colour pens with these rods…but when it comes to swirls and whorls, one has to go to the sheets and tubes…this is my understanding…I may be completely wrong…

Red acrylic rod and the Red Acrylic Jumbo…

With the Black Ebonite Jumbo

With the White Acrylic Super Jumbo and Black Ebonite Jumbo

A group photo of all the Jumbos that Mr Laksmhana Rao had brought with him…you can see Jumbos in mottled green and mottled brown ebonite too…

The Deccan Red Sanders – a new model in the making

When Zubair (@ Deccan Pen Stores, Secunderabad) showed me this pen four days back, I thought this was the manufacturer’s sample piece of an old model.  I was struck by the sheer beauty of this pen and told him that if ever he decides to sell this pen, I would want it.  It was then that he told me that this is a model that ‘Bade saab’ has been trying to perfect and it has reached this stage now.  Bade saab hasn’t perfected it yet and this is only a kind of ‘preview.’  Bade saab is probably working on making a pen in wood for the first time and there are many things that he has to look out for, Zubair said.  And this is no ordinary wood.  It is Red Sanders also known as Red Sandalwood (Pterocarpus Santalinus); known as Raktachandan in many parts of India.  It is an endangered plant species and the production, distribution, and sales of Red Sanders is regulated by the government.  

I was genuinely pleased to see this pen.  Hari had recently uploaded a post on FPN on Platinum Izumo Glossy - Tagaysan, a pen made of rosewood and I wondered if any of our Indian penmakers would attempt something in wood.  And I go to Deccan and Zubair shows me this pen made of Red Sanders!!

As I said, the pen is not yet complete.  I am not sure when it would be perfected and be ready for the market.  I took Zubair’s permission to take photos of this pen at this stage… I stopped myself from saying too much… needless to say I was overwhelmed by this beauty…I took these photos in the Deccan Pen Stores, Secunderabad branch, and tried my best to see that the photos are sharp and bring out the beauty of the pen…

The Deccan Red Sanders – Capped – the size is similar to the Deccan Masterpiece…

The Deccan Red Sanders – Uncapped

The Deccan Red Sanders – Posted 

The Clip…this is something very interesting…Bade saab has actually sprinkled the Red Sanders wood dust on the clip… obviously, some kind of adhesive on the clip surface before the sprinkling took place…Bade saab wanted the wood feel to extend to the metal clip too…

Another interesting feature here…the aperture which holds the nib and feeder is made of ebonite and fixed to the section which is made of Red Sanders…this is to prevent ink from coming into contact with the wood while filling as wood tends to swell/shrink depending on exposure to moisture/heat and either way, it would affect the nib fitting…

The nib – this is a two-toned Ambitious nib…

The feeder…

Yeah, the pen is an aerometric filler…I think it has to be that for a complete wood pen…

The joint where the aerometric filler is fixed to the section…

One can see the thickness of the barrel wall and cap wall…

Close-up of the cap…it would be a snap-cap pen…

Close-up of the barrel…

I wish and hope that Bade saab gets this pen going as soon as he can...looking at this prototype, one realises how arduous and meticulous the job is...all those small but crucial details...