Below is a hand-written review of my newest acquisition. This is an ebonite pen from Gem and Co., Chennai, India, called Gama Kuyil, purchased from ASA pens, Chennai, India.

 

 

In my previous post, I had introduced the Ranga Handmade pen company. Below is an attempt to review, together, the four pens from this company that I own!

This is a post on the Ranga Handmade pen company near Chennai, India. This represents my exploration of a small and interesting Indian industry that makes collectible (and eminently usable) handmade fountain pens. These pens are made of materials such as ebonite and acrylic.

For more details, check out the following website:

http://members.ebay.in/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=rangahandmadepens

Below is a hand-written review of the Harley Davidson fountain pen from Waterman! See previous post for some images.

Getting off the mark

A pen I like, to kickstart blog proceedings!

Re-acquainting myself with fountain pens

I am Aswin, living in the city of Bangalore in India. I do academic research in biology for a living. It was only a few years ago, as a 23-year-old PhD student in Cambridge, that I developed a fascination for fountain pens. I had used fountain pens in school, and a variety of constraints, including the need-affordability balance, availability (in India), and the tendency of school kids to lose a pen every other day, meant that a fountain pen called Hero - of dubious pedigree but excellent writing - that cost all of Rs. 30 (~0.5 USD at today's abysmal-for-the-rupee exchange rate) became the crowning possession. With the advent of "gel" pens, a move to college and the acquisition of a personal computer at home, fountain pens ceased to exist for me. That is until one day in the British summer of 2006, I walked into "The Pen Shop" at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4, and in a rush of blood, decided to buy a Waterman fountain pen, which cost me over a 100-times more than the afore-mentioned Hero pen. One thing led to another, many phases passed in life, and I am very proud of my little collection of fountain pens of all hues and colours, with a range of price-tags, with and without brand names to flaunt, purchased in three different countries. The fad has now reached a point where the prominent place among the small set of gift types that I really give me pleasure is occupied by The Fountain Pen; and the only class of gifts that I think is worth giving is represented by The Fountain Pen.

In this day and age, any fascination for fountain pens should count as freakish. May be that is what prompted a colleague of mine to suggest that I write a blog on this subject. While I do adore the Fountain Pen, I am not an expert on this subject. I am not sure what I will write on this blog. Whatever it is, it will convey the enthusiasm that I have for acquiring and using fountain pens, irrespective of the brand badge.