The New Pens in My Life

Sometime in February this year, my friend and fellow bibliophile Jai gave me a pleasant surprise by gifting me a Misak fountain pen after I casually mentioned to him that I was looking for another Misak in addition to the one I already had. Jai gave me a Misak almost exactly like the one I had except for minor differences. I fitted a Sheaffer nib I had lying with me to it and now it writes wonderfully. This is the Misak I got from Jai:

I had come across the name ‘Kanwrite’ somewhere but I did not realize that it was an Indian fountain pen brand. Someone in a fountain pen group on FB mentioned a name and a number of ‘Kanwrite’ makers. I sent a message on Whatsapp and got a sort of catalogue of dozens of beautiful looking pens in different colours. This is the ‘Kanwrite Desire’ I eventually selected and got within a week of ordering it. It is a beauty with a smooth finish.

The Pens I Got as Gifts

Nothing puts me in a good mood than holding a beautiful pen in my hand and scribbling away. I love pens, be it a ball point or a fountain pen. Knowing how much I love writing with pens my friends and family shower me with gifts of pens. So whenever I get a pen as a gift I automatically fall in love with it and also with the person who gave it to me. Last month around Diwali I got not one but two pens as unexpected gifts. For some reason around Diwali time I feel low, physically and emotionally. But this year the two pens had me smiling like I’ve never received two pens as gifts in my life.

There are close friends and there are very close friends, the sort you hold conversations with in your mind everyday even if they are thousands of miles away. I have one such very close friend- Keshav who I met in the first year of college thirty six years ago. Others know him as Dr Kranti but to me and a few others he is Keshav. When his ex-colleague called me up to say Keshav had sent a gift for me I was surprised. Keshav had shifted to the US to work in an international organization sometime in March this year and there was no way he could have sent it from there. But it seems Keshav had been to Nagpur on a short visit and had sent a gift for me through his colleague at Central Institute for Cotton Research that Keshav headed as its Director. When I went to meet his colleague who had come to Hyderabad for the Diwali holidays I thought it would be a book Keshav wanted me to read. But when I saw the black Sheaffer box with I knew it had to be a pen. I was thrilled when it turned out to be a beautiful fountain pen. When I checked it out I realized I had to get a new filling system for it because there was only provision to attach a cartridge. It would be another excuse for me to drop in at Deccan Pen Stores I thought.

Then a couple of days later Hari sprang a surprise on me. We usually meet once a week over coffee but that evening he turned up with family. When they took out the box and handed it to me I was in for a pleasant shock. It turned out to be a stunning Sheaffer ball point pen. It was just the thing I had been looking for. I wanted something classy to write with at the office and till then I had nothing. Now that Sheaffer ball point is something I carry to work every day. It was a wonderful gift that complemented the fountain pen Keshav gifted me. Now I own a pair of Sheaffer pens presented by my close friends and they are gifts I will cherish forever because they made my Diwali something I will never forget.

The Fountain Pen Haul at Pune- 3 FPs from Kale Pens

There are many cities in the country I haven’t been to and Pune happens to be one of them. After a long time I got the chance to travel on office work, only this time it happened to be to attend a training program at Pune. Actually, I volunteered to go since I wasn’t feeling very cheery being cooped up at the Secretariat here for months together. It had become so tedious and boring this chance to go to Pune came like a heaven sent opportunity. One of the things I do before I visit any place is to check if there are any places where I can get second hand books or fountain pens that are locally made.

As it happened it rained the two days I was at Pune. I can withstand anything, intense heat, or even low temperatures, anything like that except rain. In fact, I hate it when it rains. Others may find it romantic to be out in the rain but if I get wet it triggers my sinus problems. It is one reason why I hate rain. Another reason is that it puts me in a bad mood. So I was in a bad mood when I reached Pune late in the night. It got worse when two friends I was supposed to meet changed plans literally at the last minute. I decided to venture out to look for Kale Pens which I had read about on a blog.

Kale Pens was near the Dadgu Seth Temple and I stopped it quite easily. It is a very small store with the air of a shop that had been around for quite a long time. Everything in it seemed ancient, the shelves, the pens (which weren’t many) and a few photographs. I spotted the fountain pens in the counter and the person took them out to show them to me. The pens were of plastic and did not seem very attractive but nevertheless I bought three of them. Each pen was just thirty rupees. Though not very attractive, the pens seemed simple and functional, just the type I prefer. The person pressed the nib on the corner of the table and dipped it in ink and scribbled to test how it wrote. He did it with all the three pens I chose before giving them to me.

After buying the three fountain pens at Kale Pens my mood improved a little despite the rain. I walked around for a while on the slushy roads of the buzzing market place. There wasn’t much traffic around which was quite a change for me from the mad traffic in Hyderabad. The drivers of the cars and other two wheelers did not seem to be in any hurry to get anywhere unlike those in Hyderabad who drive as if they are in a tearing hurry to reach their destinations. I had missal-pav in a small eatery near the temple and a tumbler of tea at another joint behind the temple before heading to the institute. I spent the day with suppressed anticipation, wondering when I would get back to Hyderabad, fill the pens with ink and try them out.

Back at home in Hyderabad I filled ink in one of the pens and tried it out. The nib was smooth and the pen was light in the hand. However the ink dried up after writing a couple of lines. It was not unexpected but I disappointed with the performance fountain pen. I am hesitant to fill up ink in the other two pens and try them out.

My Two Latest Lovelies

It is quite difficult describing the way one feels to possess something one has only dreamt about until then, especially if it is something highly unaffordable for the likes of me. It feels different to own a luxury item one hasn’t paid for. Every time I take out the Mont Blanc that I got as a gift and look at it, I feel like going down on my knees and saying a prayer of thanks. Getting that beautiful fountain pen as a gift was something of a major miracle of my life, one that perhaps might lead to another. However, apart from the envious looks it generates a Mont Blanc also has its downside.

A Mont Blanc, needless to say is more than an object d’art. It is a glorious tool that writes like a dream, gliding on the paper like silk. While writing with it one (at least for me) feels like one can write stuff that will bring the awards. Ironically, I do not write with it as often. Somehow I cannot get myself to write with that magnificent pen every day. I feel it is too precious a thing to use to write the sort of stuff I do if you get my drift. There’s another reason why I do not write with it. I scribble quite a lot everyday, sometimes filling up nearly five pages of, usually, nonsense. Given the kind of writing I do I have to pause to refill my Mont Blanc after just a couple of paragraphs. I would be using up at least one bottle of Mont Blanc ink every month if I use the pen to write regularly. In case you did not know a bottle of Mont Blanc ink costs nearly nine hundred rupees. One can imagine the size of the hole it will make in my wallet if I write with my Mont Blanc everyday. However, I do love my Mont Blanc Meisterstuck. While I love everything about the Mont Blanc, the sleek, light body, the shape, the fit, and especially the nib, I do not like its filling mechanism. It is a pain to fill the ink. I am a simple sort of chap and want everything to be simple. So I am always on the look out for a pen with a smooth nib and one that has an open barrel without any fancy filling mechanism.

The problem with other handmade fountain pens that I own is while they are great to look at and hold their nibs are almost third rate. When I read on Biswanath Ghosh’s blog about the Wality pens with Sheaffer nibs that he bought at Chennai I was keen to get one for myself. Recently one of my friends happened to visit Chennai and I asked her to get three such pens for me from Gem & Co. I was told that Gem & Co was no longer fitting Sheaffer nibs to Wality pens and instead I could get Gama pens with the Sheaffer nibs. I agreed. After a long wait I got my three Gama pens- two blue and one steel bodied fountain pen, fitted with Sheaffer nibs with medium point. It was an agonizing wait. But it was worth the wait because they are exactly what I was looking for all these days. They are of the right weight, size and also they write very smoothly. I had planned to keep all three for myself but I gave away one to a friend. I have decided to keep the blue one at home and the steel bodied one at the office.

However, I found that the Gama fountain pens aren’t so perfect. One problem is that the body is made of plastic which appears to be too fragile. One has to be careful not to drop the pen or use too much force to open it while filling it with ink. Another irritating thing is that they have a starting problem. After keeping aside the pen for a while the nib dries up and one has to shake it or fiddle with the nib to get the ink flowing again. To sort the problem out I took the pen to the experts at Deccan Pen Store. Deccan Pen Stores has experts who can fix any problem with any pen. They told me I may have to replace the plastic feeder with an ebonite feeder. I now want to get ebonite feeders for both the pens but the only problem was that I have to leave the pens with them. They have to make the feeder individually by hand which can take a couple of weeks. One of these days I plan to give one of the pens to Deccan Pen Stores to fit the ebonite feeder while I write with the other pen.

I have to thank a lot of people for bringing these pens to my hands. Thanks, Biswanath Ghosh for giving me the info about Gem 7 Co. Big thanks to Subha for bringing them from Chennai. Thank you, Gem & Co, for making the pens. Thanks, Uma Shanker for the pictures above.

The New Pen

Among many memories of my father is one of waiting anxiously until late into the night for him to return from Hyderabad to the small town where we stayed then. I wondered what he would have brought for us from Hyderabad. I knew, along with my elder brother, that there would be the latest Amar Chitra Katha comic in his suitcase along with toys. The suitcase would be opened only in the morning and so I would go to be bed wracked by anxiety. Sometimes we would sneak into his room and take a peek inside dad’s suitcase while he was in another room. On every trip to Hyderabad or some other place he would invariably get something for us kids. Now I am doing the same for my son, getting something for him whenever I go on long trips. This time I bought a fountain pen for him as he has started showing interest in writing with fountain pens.

It had not been in my mind to buy a fountain pen for my son but when I walked into a stationery store at Nehru Place to look for notebooks my eye as usual fell on the fountain pens displayed. I asked to look at a blue Pelikano school fountain pen. I almost returned it when I saw it had a cartridge filling system but the man at the counter said he had a piston mechanism that could be fitted. The pen was for one hundred and eighty rupees and the piston cost me another hundred. I put it in my bag and forgot all about it until I returned home. The first thing my kid made me do, after giving me a brief hug, was to open the bag and show him what I had got for him. Later when he gave me the pen to write with after filling ink in it I was amazed. The nib was so smooth I couldn’t believe it. To use the exact word, the nib was 'smooth as silk' just like the nib on my Meisterstuck. This was the second branded pen I was writing with after my MB. I am so besotted with the Pelikano school fountain pen that I am planning to buy one for myself. Or maybe since I can always write with my son's Pelikano I might go in for a Lamy fountain pen. There was an ad for Lamy in yesterday's papers. Uma has a Lamy pen that he speaks very highly of. Of course, it is beautiful and writes fantastically which is why he bought it in the first place. I plan to buy one, a basic model which is not too expensive, sometime in the near future.

However that wasn’t the only pen related stuff that happened on the Delhi trip. On my way to the Capital from the International airport at Hyderabad I looked into the William Penn store in the departures terminal. Actually I did not know they had a store in Hyderabad so it was a pleasant surprise coming across it. I spent about quarter of an hour ogling at all the beautiful fountain pens displayed in the store and wishing there was some way I could earn a million rupees in a day. I also tried to imagine how stylish I would appear with a Rs 25,000 fountain pen in my shirt pocket. Later in Delhi at Khan Market I saw just the outside of the ‘editions’ pen store. I did not go in though since there is no point just gawking at the pens without being able to afford them.

Another Gift of a Fountain Pen

I wonder why but since about six or more months my luck seemed to be getting better and better- I am traveling more often, finding good books frequently and also being presented with fountain pens more often than expected. Last week once again, someone gifted me a beautiful fountain pen which took me to cloud nine straightaway the moment I laid my eyes on it. This was the second fountain pen I got as a gift in less than a month. There are still about eight months left for the year to end…

It wasn’t a friend who gifted the pen but an acquaintance who drops in on me at my office often. He knows about my craze for fountain pens so last week he gave me quite a surprise taking out the beautiful fountain pen from its plastic box. It was a bit ornate for my taste but it was too beautiful to refuse. Actually I wanted to refuse it since he has official work with me at the office and I could be accused of taking a bribe. He told me it was a personal gift so I took it but told him it was the last gift I would accept from him. Anyway, it wouldn’t have cost more than a few hundred rupees so it was alright.

But it was really beautiful to look at and wonderful to hold in the hand. It was heavy, just the way I want my pens to be. With a heavy enough fountain pen the handwriting comes out well, at least mine does. It had a plunger type of filling mechanism which takes in little ink which I don’t prefer. I prefer pens with barrel fill mechanism because I write a lot everyday and don’t like to fill ink too often. But then, one shouldn’t look at a gift horse (or even a pen) in the mouth.

Pics of the pens are by my friend Uma Shankar Sastry who is a photographer, painter as well as an excellent writer. Thanks, Uma Shankar

A Gift Out of the Blue

One’s passions sometimes lead to strange happenings. This post is about one such strange but wonderful experience that I had a couple of weeks ago. It can be called the kindness of strangers or the generosity of the accomplished. But whatever it is, I experienced something of that sort.

I am not much into cricket. I only watch the occasional game on TV and that’s it. However, I know the names of some popular Indian players and know just enough to understand who does what- bowling or batting. Once, I had the kind of experience many cricket fans would have given their right hands for. A long time back I was flying home from Tirupati with my parents. It was my first ride in a plane and I was excited.

En route to Hyderabad, the plane landed at Vijayawada. I was surprised to see that almost the entire Indian cricket team got into the plane. They were returning to Hyderabad after playing a match at Vijayawada. I don’t remember the exact year but it was sometime in the eighties. I remember the names of some of the players who were in the plane that day - Ravi Shastry, Vengsarkar, Kiran More, Kirti Azad, Mohinder Amarnath and Maninder Singh. I was wondering what to do about it. I was beside myself with excitement. One of my younger brothers is a cricket freak so I thought I’d collect the autographs of all those players for him.

After the plane landed at Begumpet I managed somehow to get hold of a piece of paper to get their autographs on. I don’t remember where it is now but I had all their signatures at one place. That was the only cricket related highlight in my entire life. However, there is another cricket angle to my life. Hari, who represented the Hyderabad Ranji team and was also part of the team that brought the Ranji Trophy back to the state a long time ago, happens to be a close friend. But it wasn’t cricket that brought us together. It was writing that sparked the friendship. ‘The Men Within’ is his first book that was published two years ago and became a bestseller. Being a popular cricketer it is no surprise that his other friends happen to be players and also commentators. One such friend of his is Rajan Bala.

Some of the few names of people who write (or wrote) for newspapers and magazines that I remember are of GK Reddy, Malini Parthasarathy, Arun Shourie, Harinder Baweja, Raj Chengappa, Anita Pratap, Nirmal Shekar and Rajan Bala. Rajan Bala lives in Bangalore where Hari had been recently sometime last month. One day he (Hari) called me up from Bangalore and told me Rajan Bala had offered me a fountain pen as a gift. I wondered why Rajan Bala would do that since I had never met him before or know him in anyway. And I don’t think he reads this blog. But Hari explained that after he told Rajan Bala that he wasn’t much of a fountain pen freak and had told him about me after Rajan Bala asked him if he knew anyone who fancied fountain pens. Naturally, I was the only friend he knew who was nuts about fountain pens and promptly mentioned it to Rajan Bala who it seems, unhesitatingly gave a beautiful fountain pen to Hari to pass it on to me.

When I got the pen sometime last week I was dumbfounded. It was such a beautiful pen it took my breath away. Needless to say, I was also taken back by the generosity of Rajan Bala. Only someone who is passionate about fountain pens can entrust them to others similarly inclined. That way, being crazy about fountain pens has resulted in a beautiful gift from someone who was only a name for me till date but is a friend now. Next time I’m in Bangalore I am going to look him up.

Thanks, Rajan Bala.

A Fountain Pen Disaster

Just when I was thinking that it had been a long time since I did a post on fountain pens, than something happened that made me the opportunity to write this post. I hadn’t bought a new fountain pen (though I would love to) or lost a fountain pen but I had the first fountain pen disaster of my life involving a major ink spill.

I had been writing with a fountain pen since nearly two decades and had never been had any serious accidents involving them. The most that happened was a broken nib when the pen slipped out of hand. But, the other day I had quite a serious accident/mishap that is not uncommon to those who use fountain pens daily. The mishap resulted in a ruined shirt.

I was attending a boring meeting, sitting out of sight in a corner and scribbling away in my notebook the draft of the post I had planned to do on waiting for the weekend papers. I was busy writing and did not hear my name being called. I rose abruptly; pen in hand, to answer one of my bosses. Then I sat down and absent mindedly put back the fountain pen in my shirt pocket.

I noticed that a few people across the table were beginning to stare at my shirt. I felt embarrassed and wondered if I had worn a shirt without a few buttons. I looked down and saw a blue stain that was fast spreading just under the pocket. I took out the pen hurriedly but it was too late; the stain achieved the size of a small football. That is one good shirt ruined because I had forgotten to put back the cap on the nib.

Finding a Simple Fountain Pen

The same day that I had been to the sale at AA Husain at Abids I also bought myself a new fountain pen. It had been quite a long time since I had gone without buying a new one. I was walking back to the office when I decided to check out a stationer’s that I have been seeing for a long time but had never checked out. It was ‘Hina’ on the Abids main road. For all my needs of fountain pens and other stationery requirements I go to Deccan Pen Stores but that day I went into ‘Hina’.

I checked for fountain pens in the display and saw a couple of them. They were all of one brand- ‘Doctor.’ The fountain pens were lightweight but deceptively thick. They were simple, elegant and inexpensive. The one I bought cost me only forty rupees. I bought one in what can be called as a turquoise color which was the color of the cap for the barrel was totally transparent. I wanted a simple fountain pen like it for my daily jottings in the office where I am one of the few who use fountain pens.

There were two others of the same model but in a dull grey color and I didn’t fancy them. Using it would make me look like an ancient file pusher which I am not. I could hardly wait to get back to office. I got ink filled in it ( I keep a bottle of Quink at office) and tested the new pen. The nib was surprisingly smooth considering the price I paid for it. It wrote beautifully and I was glad I had picked it up. Sometimes such impulsive purchases turn out to be better than things on which you have spent a lot of money and effort.

The Mont Blanc Experience

Yesterday was the day I was eagerly waiting for since the day I got a Mont Blanc Meisterstuck fountain pen as a gift some time back in November. I was waiting for a significant day to begin writing with it. It was my birthday yesterday so I thought there’d be no better day to take out the Mont Blanc. I lovingly filled ink in it and started writing in my notebook. The pen just flowed smoothly on the paper and I wished I could go on writing until all the pages in the notebook were filled. But I had nothing much to write about so I reluctantly put the pen back. But I carried it around in my shirt pocket all day showing it off to friends and others.

Now that I have finally started using the Mont Blanc I hope to finish the first draft of my book that is struck at a particular scene. I wasn’t feeling motivated enough to finish the draft though I am only about 50 pages away from the ending. I hope to finish the first draft by mid-March. I am already picturing myself sitting hunched over my table scribbling away with the Mont Blanc as the pages pile up on the table.

The pen’s nib is a ‘Medium’ which is a bit too thick for my taste and I am wondering if I should have the nib changed to a ‘Fine’ one. There’s a Mont Blanc store in Hyderabad at the Hotel Grand Kakatiya. I don’t know if they will agree to do it since the pen came with a warranty (?)book which had no dealer’s stamp. I hope they agree to do it since it is an authentic piece. I had been there yesterday to attend a talk with a scriptwriter but it got too late and I had no time to visit the Mont Blanc store. Sometime next week I plan to visit them and ask about it. Until then I will experience the pure pleasure of writing with my Meisterstuck.

Mahatma Gandhi's Fountain Pen

Yesterday I laid my eyes on a famous article used by a world famous man. At Sevagram, I saw the fountain pen Mahatma Gandhi used to write with. It is a simple dip type fountain pen, with only a nib at the end of a wooden holder. But I was glad I saw it because right from the moment my friend told me Wardha was only a hour and half's drive from Nagpur where I had gone to attend a meeting on Sunday, I was curios to know if I would find the pen. I was told that at Sevagram there were displayed certain articles that Gandhiji used everyday and I was actually dying to see if his pen would be there. It was, and that made my trip to Nagpur worth it.

I had seen a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi to a pen maker, Ratnam, in Rajahmundry last year. It was written sometime in 1947, a time when only fountain pens were around. It was written in that beautiful handwriting of his and at that time, I wondered which pen he wrote with. I got the answer yesterday. The pen was displayed in a wooden display case along with his spectacles, the inkstand, two pencils and other articles. I tried to take a picture but the glass on the case kept reflecting the flash. It was a bit dark in 'Bapu Kuti', the hut where Gandhiji stayed so I had to use the flash on my digital camera which was a basic model so I couldn't take a close up of the pen. I got a picture that I hope shows the pen clearly.

Sevagram is 8 kilometres away from Wardha which is about 80 kilometers from Nagpur. The road is good and one can reach the place in an hour and half by car. I had a train to catch so I had to return early. I plan to make more research about Gandhiji's fountain pens and write them here

The Meisterstuck Magic

Ever since I got the Mont Blanc Meisterstuck sometime this month, my daily morning routine has changed. Every morning I take out the lovely fountain pen from its box and put it on the table before me. Then for a full thirty minutes I gaze at it lovingly wondering about its absolute perfection. It is so beautiful and exquisite in appearance, and so snug in its feel I don’t have the heart to fill ink in it and begin using the pen. I am afraid of spoiling its perfection by writing with it. I am torn between a fierce desire to begin writing with it and the desire to let it remain in its original condition.

Yet, when I take it in my hand I get the feeling that anything I write with it will come out well and maybe, win a prize or two! Jokes apart, I guess something inside has shifted within me and I can feel a new confidence about my writing. I am sure getting the Meisterstuck has something to do with it. I had read somewhere that when you get a gift of some article that you feel you don’t deserve, it brings you to the level of deserving it.

I will start using the pen in February next, maybe on my birthday.

At last after years of gawking at beautifulpens in catalogs I have finally got one to write with myself.

A Gift of a Lifetime- Mont Blanc Meisterstuck

While reading Biswanath Ghosh’s ‘Sunday Spin’ column in The Sunday New Indian Express on Sunday morning, (and envying him for owning a Mont Blanc fountain pen,) little did I know that in a few hours from then I too would be owning one. That afternoon someone very close to me sent me a Mont Blanc Meisterstuck out of the blue leaving me dumbfounded at the generosity.

After the initial shock of receiving a gift of something I had been dreaming for long, I opened the box gingerly, and when I laid my eyes on the beautiful, black Meisterstuck I was overcome with emotion. How many writers are lucky to get a gift of a brand new, original Mont Blanc Meisterstuck fountain pen just because they happened to mention it in their blog?

At last, after years of dreaming about it, I had a Meisterstuck without having to pay for it! I had just one look at the lovely Meisterstuck and kept it back in my cupboard. It will take some time for me to get used to the idea that I am finally a proud owner of a Mont Blanc Meisterstuck fountain pen. Somewhere I had read that you only have to express your desires to the universe and the universe gives it to you. I expressed my wish in my blog and it came true thanks to a wonderful person.

Pens and More Pens Again

Funny how sometimes things you are interested in keep coming back to you in some form or the other. As an ex-copy writer and also as someone who reads the papers end to end I read even the smallest and most obscure ads. I came across one in yesterday’s 'The Hindu’ and the ad was about distributors in South India for the famed Chinese ‘Hero’ fountain pens. The Hero pens manufactured by Shanghai Hero Gold Pen Factory in China are being imported into India by S.K. Impex, Chennai and Chhajer Sales & Marketing, Chennai are the authorised distributors for the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry. I had always thought that the ‘Hero’ fountain pens that are available in India were smuggled but now I know.

Then again, there was the news item about the opening of the ‘Just In Vogue’ pen store about which I wrote in yesterday’s post.

In today’s 'The Hindu' there was another news item that Parker’s most famous fountain pen- The Parker Duofold- was available in solid silver and cost a lakh rupees. I really like the classic one and once harbored a dream of owning one but I know it is an impossible dream but that doesn’t stop me from dreaming about it.

Then again I happened to be reading yesterday’s Indian Express today and read that Luxor Writing Instruments have launched a new pen range- Parker Celebration Range- and these are customized it seems.

It seems to be pens and more pens this week

Another Pen Store- Just In Vogue- opens in Hyderabad

It was on television yesterday and in the papers today that a new pen store had opened in Hyderabad. ‘Just In Vogue’, the name of the store, opened at City Centre Mall in Banjara Hills on Wednesday the reports said. The store stocks a wide collection of luxury pens of brands like Waterman, Sheaffer, Parker and Cross, according the report in today’s ‘The Hindu’.

I have been thinking of buying myself a really nice and expensive fountain pen since a long time. I have decided to buy one after completing a major writing project I am working on currently. I might finish it by the end of the year and then buy myself a fountain pen as a reward for completing the project. I do this often to keep myself motivated to write, which other wise is a tough thing to do. One wants to be a writer but without doing much writing.

I haven’t yet decided which pen to buy but I am veering towards a Mont Blanc Meisterstuck, the classic that stops hearts of pen lovers. The other day I saw a hoarding of Mont Blanc pens at Begumpet. Mont Blanc has an exclusive outlet at Hotel Kakatiya Sheraton at Greenlands. I haven’t visited the place yet but soon I will find a reason to check out the pens there before buying one. Most book readings in Hyderabad take place in this hotel so if there is another reading in the Sheraton I might check out the Mont Blanc store this time.

But, in my opinion, the best places to buy good quality fountain pens are the Deccan Pen Stores that have branches at Abids, Secunderabad and at Greenlands. Deccan Pen Stores is the oldest pen store in Hyderabad and they had their store near NTR estate at Abids but now the main store is in Metro Estate also at Abids, near Bata. I buy all my fountain pens there. The staff are incredibly polite and service is fast.

Feelings- 100 Hundred Years of Mont Blanc Part- II

The second part of the Mont Blanc catalog containing Part III and Part IV contain even more interesting item with several beautiful pictures of architects, artists etc. There is one picture of a fountain pen being crafted that is breath taking. Only one who loves fountain pens will understand it.


PART III- I Like to Dream- of the catalog contains profiles of seven contemporary visionaries- Robert Wilson, theatre director; Ora Ito, designer; Tod Lippy, founder of Esopus magazine (more about it later); Zaha Hadid, architect; Ferran Adre, chef; Richard Branson, entrepreneu and Karlheinz Bohm, actor.

There are pictures of a fountain pen (StarWalker Doue), a watch (Time-Walker chronograph), a perfume (Femme de MontBlanc) a belt, a necklace, cufflinks, sunglasses and again a pen- the Boheme 1906, a watch again, a wallet and again a picture of another fountain pen- the George Solti. There’s a write up of Justus Franz’s Philharmonia of the Nations.

There are also pictures of the rough sketches and drafts of some pioneering ideas- Kennedy’s draft of his speech in Berlin, first draft by Beethoven of his Divine Symphony and the initial sketches by Pablo Picasso of his greatest work, the Guernica.

PART IV – I Like to Touch- is filled with more pictures and less words. The emphasis is on the people ( or rather masters) behind the famous Mont Blanc pens and watches who turn out the watches at the Montblanc Montre SA workshop in Le Locle.

The watch workshop is described in detail including some of the men and women behind the crafting of the best watches in the world.

But it was the section on fountain pens that had me salivating though there was only a picture with the various tools involved in making a fountain pen. However there were brief write ups and pictures of three people- Ayla Wendt who tests the quality of the nibs, Roland Vogt who sets the diamonds in the lids of some of the expensive pens and Flora Rittmann who grinds down the nibs. To me they are the real heroes.

Finally there were more pictures and write ups of people honored by Mont Blanc for supporting the arts- the Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronage Award.

It is a collectors item, this 100 Years of Mont Blanc catalog. I am glad I found this beautiful catalog which adds to my growing collection of Mont Blanc catalogs.

Feelings- One Hundred Years of Mont Blanc Part I

In 2006, that is, last year, Mont Blanc completed one hundred years and I wasn’t even aware of it. I learnt about it only recently, last Sunday to be precise, at Abids, when I picked up another Mont Blanc Catalog, this one titled- Feelings- One Hundred Years of Mont Blanc.

I got this 92-page, magazine sized catalog for only ten rupees but it had a wealth of information, photographs, illustrations and statements from prominent writers that make this issue a collector’s item. Though I love fountain pens I hadn’t taken much trouble learning about the history of famous brands. But now I have decided to educate myself about the famous brands. But for now, to the Mont Blanc Catalog.

The beautiful catalog is divided into four parts- Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.

Part I is ‘I like to Write’ which contains 149 statements by prominent personalities that start with ‘I like to Write…’. Some of the famous names who’ve contributed to this section include the French actress Jeanne Moreau, Angelic Houston and the writer Candace Bushnell who says, ‘ I like to write because I always want to show people a new way to think about life’.

Part I also has a beautiful picture of the classic Meisterstuck 149 for which three designers developed a packing. The final section in this Part is by the Italian author Claudio Magris who declares his love for the Café San Marco in Trieste. There’s a beautiful full page picture of the author in the café with a notebook scribbling something on a paper.

Part II again contains three sections. The first section contains pictures of the various designs for the Mont Blanc logo that several designers developed.

The second section of Part II is an article by Prof. Robert Levine, author of ‘A Geography of Time’, on time and the need to strike a balance and knowing when to hurry and when to slow down.

The final section is about the Mont Blanc diamond and a bit of Mont Blanc’s history which is very history. It would require a separate post to write about the history. Until now I too did not know it but it seems the white Mont Blanc star represents the six glaciers found at the peak of the mountain and was first designed in 1913. There are stunning photographs of the diamonds and the cutting process involved in the creation of the Mont Blanc diamond that adorns the cap of the Meisterstuck Solitaire 100 and also some of Mont Blanc watches. It appears that the Mont Blanc diamond is the world’s first to be cut on the shape of a company logo.

More about the next two parts, Part III and Part IV in a subsequent post.

When I have a Pen in Hand I Stop at Nothing

It is this line by Simone de Beauvoir that I saw in the Mont Blanc catalog, which is buzzing in my mind all the time. I wish I had written that line. It sounds so true and one needs to be a person who loves pens to truly understand Beauvoir’s line.

Apart from this line there are several such lines on writing, pens and ideas by writers and others in the Mont Blanc catalog. These lines are scattered among the glossy pages containing stunning photographs of some of the most beautiful fountain pens I have laid my eyes on.

The other lines in the catalog are:

When I have a Pen in Hand I stop at Nothing - Simone de Beauvoir

Pencil, paper and books are the gunpowder of the mind- Neil Postman

I am a galley slave to pen and ink - Honore de Balzac

One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time and in others’ mind -Alfred Kazin

I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living for it is being conscious of living- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

We are not only responsible for what we do, but also for what we refrain from doing- Lao Tse

It’s kind of fun to do the impossible - Walt Disney

A line is a dot that went on a walk- Paul Klee

No day without a line - Gaius Punius Secundus