Hello everybody. I am Prabuddha from Bombay, India. Since as long ago as I can remember, I have always enjoyed the use of fountain pens. In school, we were , after some years of pencils, allowed to use fountain pens. We felt so grown up then. I guess I was eight then. We would intentionally get ink stains on our fingers to let the whole world know we were big enough to use pens.

After a few years of using fountain pens, we were allowed the liberty to try ball point pens, since it was suggested that the formative years during which our handwriting was to take shape, were past. While most of my friends moved to ball point pens, I continued with fountain pens.

Here in India, Chinese pens were the rage. They had tiny nibs, with just the tip sticking out of the body. Birthday gifts were often these pens. I was glad to have quite a few in different colours.

I am a regular fountain pen user till this day. My friends consider that a quirk in my nature. If and when I come across someone who uses fountain pens, even off and on, I consider that a very unusual day.

Over the years, I have accumulated a few pens that are damaged and one day, I was googling to see if I could find out how a Parker Vector nib and feed could be removed from the barrel. To say I was shocked, would be an understatement. There was a whole forum where people discussed fountain pens! They even discussed about nibs and about repairing pens! Wonder of wonders!

Honestly, I had never expected to find something like this, ever. I have completely no knowledge of fountain pens, and I hope to learn a lot from the many knowledgable members here.

Bye for now.

Regards,

Prabuddha

Welcome to the forum!.

Welcome to FPN Prabuddha,

You would find quite a few "desis" around here.

Thanks Ondina and Fatehbajwa. I hope to have a good time here.

There's a whole world of us out here. Glad you can join us.

Welcome to FPN, Prabuddhadg!

Hi, Prabuddha - and welcome to FPN. I know what you mean about it being an unusual day if you encounter someone who uses a fountain pen. I hardly ever run across fountain pen users in person so I'm very grateful for FPN. I'm sure you will enjoy it and learn a lot.

Judybug

Hi from in between Bombay and New York (or Vancouver, for that matter).
So, you hope to learn a lot, do you? Well, you're on the right forum for that. Me too.
All best wishes
Mike

Welcome to FPN, Prabuddha.

Thank you for the welcome everybody. I have been going through the various threads here, and I must say, I am in awe. I had no idea what I had got myself into. Now I am getting an inkling. Is there really so much hidden in this pair of words, "fountain pen"? I have just dipped one small toe in this ocean and I have learnt about concave tine surfaces resulting in scratchy pens, and metal sheets to clean between tines.

I am surely going to enjoy life here.

Namaste Prabuddha, and welcome to FPN.
Like Fateh from Chandigarh, I am also another one of the Desis here on FPN. In fact, I think Hari and a couple of others are from Bombay too.
Lik e you, I used Chinese made fountain pens and Sulekha and Doctor brand pens made in Calcutta during my school years.

Good to have you here, and welcome to the crazy world of fountain pens!!

Hi Wolverine, great to meet another Desi. Which city are you from? Have to get in touch with the other Bombayite FPN'ers. Have to find some good sources in Bombay, if possible. I like fiddling with my old broken down pens, and maybe they can give me some local leads.

The knowledge flowing around here is simply amazing. Its wonderful to find so many pen lovers in one place.

Welcome to FPN, Prabuddha! Have you read excellent reports by another member Hari, who lives in Mumbai?

http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=60720
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=60692

Thanks so very much Taki. I live so far from the Fort area where all the shops Hari has photographed are, that it is a project to get there. But all those photographs are so very tempting, I just have to go there very very soon.

Welcome and namaste.

I hope you really enjoy yourself here. I never knew how much there was to know and enjoy about fountain pens before I came here.

I am actually hoping to get some Indian pens via my housemate's coworker, who is going to India next month to train some of your countrymen for Oracle.

See you around,
Eric

Welcome to FPN.

Hi and thanks Songwind. The web is such a nice place to meet people from all around. Here I am feeling welcome sitting in hot and humid Bombay while you are probably cold enough for the ink in your pen to freeze. Don't they say about Minnesota that in July its not summer yet and in August its not summer already? Well in Bombay, its never winter- though weather patterns are changing.

Actually, I have already learnt something concrete- how to remove the nib and feed from a Parker vector. I got the tip from FPN and tried it out- and it worked.

It's not quite that cold anymore, at least.

I have heard it suggested that the four seasons in Minnesota are:

Almost Winter
Winter
Still Winter
Road Construction

Hey, that's pretty similar to our Bombay weather:

Hot and humid summer (with road construction)
Hot and rainy (with road construction)
Hot and humid summer (with road construction)
Almost hot and almost humid summer (with road construction)

Hi Prabu - I am a desi , originally from Assam, but now I am a NRI desi, living in the USA. There are both genuine Desis like Fateh and Hari here, as well as a few NRI Desis. Also a few ABCDs !!!!

Hi Woverine1,

Nice to hear from you. I have received a welcome note from Fateh and I have seen one of Hari's posts on a guided tour of Bombay's pen shops. I have only lived in Bombay for 7 years now, and that too mostly in the suburbs. So, my knowledge of Bombay's pen shops has been pretty limited. So, Hari's tour has been quite an eye opener for me. Joining this forum has been a windfall to me, really.

Welcome to FPN, Prabuddha! It's a wonderful resource. My favorite dip pen is one I bought at an antique shop in Cochin - an old school pen whose handle was painted many times and whose nib just won't give up!
Tom

Prabuddah,

Welcome. When I was in India I did indeed, on rare occasion see the smaller chinese pens you talk about. We look forward to being as good a resource for you as your wonderful people and country were for a weary american traveler like mysely (Chennai, Mysore, New Delhi, ...)

Brent

Welcome to FPN, Prabuddha I think you will have a great time here.

Hello and welcome to FPN.

Hello and welcome! Many of my students are from India and they always smile when they see my fountain pens in school. They are all familiar with fountain pens!

Hi Tom, thanks for the welcome. At school I did use something that was called a "crow-quill" pen in art class. It was a dip pen with a very fine nib, though not flexible at all. It was terribly scratchy on any but the downward stroke. So, I do not have any great memories of dip pens, but grandmother did show me one she used to use in the twenties. It had an ivory handle, and a small reservoir for ink within the nib itself. But the steel nib had all but given up by the time I got to use it.

Just going through the posts here I am gathering so much information, that I am amazed at the nuances of the nib and the pen.



Thanks for the kind words for my country Brent. Glad you enjoyed it here. I spent the later part of my childhood in Calcutta, and most of my childhood pens are still there. The next time I go there, I shall again open that Pandora's box of memories. And I shall bring back all the pens. This forum is giving me so many ideas, I have to look at those pens in a new light.



Hi Hari, I was given a lead to two of your posts. The pictorial tour of South Bombay was delightful. I used to have a transparent barrelled pen, received from a great-uncle along with all his non-working pens. I can't recollect now, but it may have been an Air Mail pen. Your post brought back that memory too.



Thanks Ed44. I am feeling very welcome here and I am having a great time.



Hi play pen. People of my generation would definitely be very familiar with fountain pens, though very few of them actually use them any more. Nowadays, even the first pen is unfortunately, a ball point or a roller or gel pen. I feel a little sad that these kids miss out on the romance of inky fingers and ink drops on unsuspecting backs from a swift swipe of the pen .

Welcome to the Forum, another Desi, sitting in Minnesota.

This is a great forum. Beware of your "wants" increasing as you more familiar with the forum and fountain pens.

-Carlos

Hi Carlos,

Nice to catch up with so many Desi fountain pen lovers from all around.

One thing I must admit is that while I do like to touch Mont Blancs and Watermans, I feel just about as excited to fiddle with a cheap, leaky or damaged pen. Also, I am happy to get to touch once in a while. I do not have to own. So, even if my wants increase, it may not have a big financial impact on me.

Hello Prabuddha,

Welcome to the Fountain Pen University! Many years ago, I thought all fountain pens were the same, but as I started surfing the Web, I became amazed at the depth of all the information that was available. However, it wasn't until I found this site, that I felt I had became baptized in a whole new, exciting world of fine writing instruments. Likewise, its also fun to use different inks from various manufacturers around the world.

University indeed! The kind of information simply floating around is amazing. Just yesterday, inspired by all you knowledgable folks, I got myself a 20X loupe and did a detailed inspection of some of my pens. And I must say I was devastated. There are flaws in almost all the pens, barring just one or two. Till no, for me it had been ignorance is bliss. But now, I shall have to do something about these nibs.

I have a sheet of glass that has one polished side and a slightly matte side. I use this sheet to polish nibs of the pens that are scratchy. I have started working on physically identified flaws now, instead of just polishing by feel. That is one learning from FPN. Thanks everyone.