My Pelikan M800 is restored and dazzles ... thanks to Hari and the Pelikan pen company ...

I used to write about Indian handmade fountain pens regularly till 2015.  I had managed to track down quite a few handmade pen makers and pen brands in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, got fountain pens from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and collected precious fountain pens made of ebonite, acrylic, and celluloid – names of materials I didn’t know were associated with the making of fountain pens.  More than collecting, I was interested in bringing to light the history of these writing instruments and their brand names, and their owners.  I was able to do that to some extent and I can say with some pleasure that my posts with their photos of pens brought some visibility to these brands among fountain pen lovers in India and abroad.  The ‘old’ and ‘history’ part of the Indian handmade fountain pens slowly faded away and I felt that I was able to collect and showcase whatever I possibly could in these years. 

Almost at the same time, I was also collecting ‘foreign’ fountain pens.  That also began as a frenzy.  I wanted to have at least one fountain pen from each of the acclaimed and time-tested brands.  My friend Hari, in Mumbai, sourced me most of these pens, some second-hand, some new, but all welcome.  If not for Hari and his high levels of motivation in seeing me invested in ‘foreign’ fountain pens, I would not have had the guts to move in that direction.  When I look at the current prices of these ‘foreign’ fountain pens, I look at my small collection with fondness. 

And sometime last year, one such fond and much loved pen met with an accident … my most beautiful Pelikan M800 just broke into two at the section … I am not sure how it happened, I don’t recall dropping it or don’t remember the pen having a fall … there appeared to be some force applied at the section … this is a piston filler fountain pen and without realizing this somebody must have tried to twist it at the section … and it broke … when I discovered it, I was aghast … I was so heartbroken that I just kept it in its box not knowing what to do … it lay in its box for months, and then one day I decided to tell Hari, who got me the pen in the first place … I told him first, and then he asked me send pictures … I held the two broken pieces of the pen and took these pictures …

As soon as he saw the pictures, Hari told me to send him the pen as soon as possible … I asked him what’s the hurry … he said his father is leaving for England and he’d send the damaged pen with him and ask him to send it from England to the Pelikan pen company in Germany (or was it Switzerland?) and see what can be done … Hari said let’s take a chance and see …  I did as Hari told me and I sent the pen by the fastest service available, but unfortunately the floods in Mumbai created some tension at the last minute and the pen reached Mumbai just in time …    

Hari kept sending me one line updates in the initial days, but once the pen reached Germany, even he was clueless … and then one day Hari texted me saying that my Pelikan M800 is repaired and it has been sent back to England … ooohh … this was tremendous news … Pelikan M800 back to life … wow … after a couple of exhilarating days savouring this news, other things took over and I forgot about it … a couple of months later, Hari’s father brought the pen back to India and Hari sent the repaired pen back to me … this is how it looks …

 

Beautiful, na … the good people at Pelikan have replaced the entire barrel and possibly the section too … repaired it and sent it back to England … and all this without taking a pfennig or paisa … the blue barrel shimmers  … all the gold trims dazzle … ooh maan …

I didn’t think it would happen this way … the worst that could happen I thought was that they’d send the pen back as it was saying it can’t be repaired … or maybe they’d quote a price for repair and replacement … I was sort of ready for that … but this was totally unexpected … Hari took on this responsibility and thanks to his persistence I got my pen back in pristine shape … Hari had faith, but I was circumspect … bhejke dekhenge he told me … a little faith goes a long way … via England to Germany and back to India by the same route …

Thanks Pelikan, this good gesture will be remembered for a long long time and this post is a heartfelt appreciation of the care you take of your customers and for the wonderful fountain pens that you create … and the pride you take in your fountain pens …