The GAMA Ivory Fountain Pen

The GAMA Ivory was the other fountain pen that I bought at Gem & Co.  Whereas the Demonstrator was my choice, the Ivory was recommended by Mr Pratap.  He said that the Ivory was their most recent creation and the Ivory colour is not something you come across commonly.  I have a white acrylic fountain pen made by Deccan, but the Gama Ivory was definitely different.  The richness of the Ivory colour captivated me.  I don’t know how to put it, but I feel that the ivory colour has a certain restraint, something slightly held back.  

The Gama Ivory is a cigar shaped fountain pen, the classical shape favoured by many pen-makers.  The pen has very neat lines and the only two pieces of metal are the clip and the nib.  The clip is not exactly a ball-clip, a design I like a lot, but more like a tear-drop design.  I would have preferred a different design on the clip.  A flat gold plated one such as one sees in the recent Deccan Advocates would suit the Ivory colour, I feel. 

The pen has the tried and tested Ambitious nib.  Nothing much goes wrong with this nib as far as I have seen in the many pens I have that use this nib.  The nib is smooth and the ink flow is even and gives that very slight grip on the page which I like while writing.  I filled the pen with Pelikan Black ink and that is what you see on the barrel threads and the section lip.

A nice pen that looks very good and writes well … what more does one want from a fountain pen …

Here are some pictures … 

The Gama Kambar - re-engineered by Hari to blend capacity & efficiency to become the GAMHAR Kambar

I told this to Hari recently that what he is doing is the best thing that has happened to the handmade Indian Fountain Pen in recent times.  I am not exaggerating.  The concept is so simple that once one sees it one feels like saying, ‘why didn’t I think of it!’  Hari has been doing this re-engineering for some months now and the results (along with wonderful photographs) of his efforts are all over Fountain Pen Network and has generated a lot of interest and praise …

A lot of fountain pen enthusiasts on Fountain Pen Network are charmed by the concept of handmade Indian ebonite ED filler pens and many have bought pens made by Deccan Pen Stores (Hyderabad), Gama from Gem & Co. (Chennai), Ratnam and Guider (Rajahmundry), Ranga (Chennai), etc., and have enjoyed the experience.  But many of them are not comfortable with the concept of ED filler pens because of their tendency to leak and blob out ink as the volume of ink starts coming down in the barrel.  Some of them have reservations about the custom nibs fitted on to some of the brands. 

What Hari is doing is this … he takes a Gama fountain pen (or a Deccan Advocate) … and creates a threading in the section which will then enable the section to carry a Pelikan Souveran screw-in nib … and lo and behold, we have a super-efficient fusion pen combining the best of both worlds, as Hari himself puts it … a smooth tried and tested and vouched-for nib brand on to an handmade ebonite barrel … the feeder in the screwed in nib unit regulates the flow of ink and controls leaking and the nib ensures a smooth writing experience … the huge ink capacity in these handmade ebonite pens ensures a very long writing experience too …

As soon as Hari started this experiment he sent me some photos and told me how the whole thing works … he started experimenting with various Gama models and the Deccan Advocate … I was impressed with the Gama Kambar and told him so and he informed me that he would keep one aside for me … and since I have a Pelikan M800, I have a ready-made screw-in nib unit that could be fitted on to the Kambar … I waited …

It is only recently that I got to see a live example … Hari came to Hyderabad on a two-day visit and as he was very busy, we couldn’t do our customary Deccan Pens visit and I also missed our dinner together, something we add on after our Deccan visit … but anyway, I was not to be thwarted, and Hari ensured that I got my pen … the place where I live in Hyderabad is on the way to the airport from where Hari was put up … and we agreed to meet for a brief while on the roadside … and that is where he gave me the Gama Kambar designed to take a Pelikan M800 nib …

In my excitement, I inked the pen that night itself and so couldn’t take photos of the nib-less pen … but here are the photos of the fabulous Gama Kambar with the Pelikan M800 nib …

I want to call these fusion pens made by Hari on the Gama models as GAMHAR models …

The Gama Kambar came in this nice black pouch ... 

Out of the pouch ... the clean lines show a lot of character and restraint ... very beautifully made pen in brushed black ebonite ... solid pen with seemingly inexhaustible ink capacity ... 

Look at the clip ... it is still better live ... 

Gama on the barrel ... 

The polished cap top and barrel end ... 

Aah ... here is the nib ... 

A view of the formidable Pelikan Souveran feeder ... 

Alas ... kuch paane ke liye kuch khona padtha hai ... my nibless Pelikan M800 ... 

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…