Madras (now Chennai) is the largest metropolitan city in the south of India. It is also the capital of the state of Tamilnadu (which means Tamil land after the language spoken there). I visited Madras this June on a holiday and naturally went pen hunting. The pen shops in Madras (that I know of atleast) are concentrated in the Parry's area on NSC Bose road opp. Kurulagam(the Government run Arts and Handicraft emporium).

The most promienent shop there is the Gem and Company who have been in business for the last 80 years. I have visited this shop in the past and first came to know about it from my late grandfather who had purchased his Sheaffer vac-o-fill tuckaways from them.

Well, when I visited the shop this time, I was welcomed by Mr. Pratap Kumar who is the owner of this establishment. He is the grandson of Mr. M.C. Cunnan who started this store, and till a few years back the shop was being managed by Mr. Pratap's father Mr. M. Prabhat Kumar. Gem and Company have an illustrous past as one of the largest pen stores in the south of India and were representing major brands of the day like Pelikan, Parker and Sheaffer. They were also the authorised repair center for these brands and still hold a huge inventory of spare parts including parts for vintage Mont Blanc pens. They were also the main dealers for the Madras based Pilot pen company and their own brand the GAMA pen. The shop has been re-laid now, and I remember in the past when they had still kept installed wooden Pelikan pen display cases. Gem and company deals exclusively in pens, ballpens, inks and refills only and carry no other stationery items.

Gem and Co as seen from the entrance of Kurulagam:


Mr. Pratap Kumar at the counter:


The shop crowded with customers who still buy Fountain pens:


Sheaffer Shop display:


Pelikan Shop display; pls excuse the poor focus...


Some GAMA handturned acrylic desk pens:


Some mini ED GAMA celluloid pens:




A few shops away from Gem and Company towards Rattan Bazaar is a shop called The Pen Corner, they had the entire range of Wality pens and GAMA pens on display.


Krishna Mart is also nearby and I had bought my Madras Ebonites from them.


Adjacent to the left of The Pen Corner is a shop called KN Perumall Chetty, a fairly large shop.


They had some Ebonite pens at fantastic prices similar to the ones that I had picked up from Krishna Mart


These are the brief results of my survey of pen shops in the Parry's area, I am sure there are many other good pen shops in Madras, just a matter of proper exploration.

Cheers,
Hari

Wow Hari! First Mumbai, then Chennai! Fantastic photo-survey! Next in line what? Kolkata- Delhi-Hydrabad?
Thanks for sharing!
Abhik.

Hari, I am looking forward to you helping me find some Pen shops in Chandigarh!

Your pictures bring back a few memories to my mind. Never been to India but was in Singapore in 1975. The Indian market shops of that date looked much like the shops you photograph.

I bought my first calculator, a Casio, in one of the shops. The manual was in Japanese, which I did not read at the time. Which made learning the calculator quite an experience.

The shop personnel were always polite and knowledgeable about their products. Loved the trip there.

Have a good day,
Randal

Hari, four pen shops in one area! You make those of us who live in pen-shop-deprived areas very jealous! Not to mention some of those gorgeous pens - that wonderful elaborate transparent one with all the knobs is amazing.

Thanks again for your great photos!
Tom

Thanks Abhik, Maybe you or Bluemoon can tell us about Kolkata shops, its your hometown after all.



Randal I too prefer down to earth shops rather than all the bling, after all it is the goods and the personal attention that matters.



Thanks Tom. No need to feel jealous, after all you have the whole world at your disposal through online shopping. Indian customs generally levies heavy duties on imports so the only way for most of us here is to buy from a B&M store.

Regards,
Hari

Thanks a lot! I will visit Chennai again in December (now I am a proud PIO), and will certainly visit these stores. Thanks again Hari! Ruud

Hi Hari,
thanks for the painstaking coverage... Do you know of any shops in bangalore which might carry Indian Ebonites?

Cheers

Pretzie, there is only I shop (that I know of) in Bangalore that sells an Indian Ebonite ED called Jorden. It is located on Avenue Road, the road adjacent to State bank of Mysore. I do not remember the name of the shop, but there is a huge red colored pen logo that points to his shop. Do let us know what you found.

Fancier pens can be bought from William Penn whose brances are scattered all over Bangalore.

Regards,
Hari

Sorry...Duplicate post.

Thanks Hari, for your excellent survey of both Mumbai and Chennai pen shops. They are really helpful.
I am really looking forward to do a similar survey for Kolkata pen shops, but nowadays what I am too busy with my job..
will do it as soon as possible.
I think most interesting will be a survey of the shops that sells vintage FP's... But almost all the shops that used to deal in
vintage are now extinct. The vintage pen business is now went in the hand of a few dealers who does not sell in shops...
still I will try.
Again thanks for the Survey... keep up the good work

Good stuff. I would be interested to know if there are any good MB shops/dealers in Delhi.