Just back from India...

[bhassan]

Hello all,

 

My wife and I went to India for a month to visit her family. We just came back on the 23rd of January. It just so happens that her family is spread all over the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Sooo, every city and town we went to, guess what I went hunting for? If it was just for the pens for me, my wife would have been pretty annoyed, but she did most of the shopping (for clothes and shoes) and I squeezed in a few pens if I could find them.

 

In the small town of Nehtaur, where her mother lives, there is a small market, barely three hundred feet long, where three rickety steel sheet-and-wood shacks serve as the stationery stores. My requests in these places were met mostly with guffaws. "Oh you aren't going to find those here," one owner grinned, "We stopped carrying ink pens years ago. Not even the village schools use them anymore. We do have rollerballs and gel pens, if you'd like." Ah, the casualties of "progress." One recently-opened store on the other side of town, with little idea of market trends, DID have fountain pens. Lazor-branded, cheap, plastic, ultralight, and made in India. At 15 rupees (30 cents) each, I bought three. Well, they ARE pretty awful. The ink leaks past the syringe-plunger piston and fills the body, waiting for you to open the body to present you with an ink bomb.

 

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i256/Bilal_H/Lazorfountainpen.jpg

 

On we went to neighboring Dhampur, where more extended family lives. In this small town, down a dusty side street, my request for fountain pens at a stationery store was met with a flash of recognition on the owners face. The owner went to the back of the store, and came back with a box covered in dust and marked with Wing Sung. Inside the box was an old, picked over lot, but with two pristine, uninked Wing Sung 233s, with the better fit and finish, gold cap, and the two-tone nib! Price? 25 rupees each (about 52 cents)!!!! And they write like no other Wing Sung I have ever had. Smooth as glass. I consider them my ultimate find. The owner claimed he hadn't sold fountain pens in ten years or more.

 

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i256/Bilal_H/WingSung233.jpg

 

In the university town of Aligarh, home to the Aligarh Muslim University, a gift shop yielded this interesting find. The fellow on the pack is Amitabh Bachchan, a very famous Indian movie actor. The pen is manufactured under license by Luxor in India, and I paid the full price of 180 rupees for it ($4.50). It writes well, with just a hint of toothiness. I expect that to wear off in a month or so.

 

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i256/Bilal_H/ParkerVectorAmitabh.jpg

 

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i256/Bilal_H/P1010155.jpg

 

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i256/Bilal_H/P1010154.jpg

 

Also in this town, another stationery store yielded a Hero 221, the less finished version of the Hero 442, but it writes smoother than my 442! Price: 25 rupees (52 cents).

 

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i256/Bilal_H/Hero221.jpg

 

All in all, good finds. A disappointing trend that I saw in India is that all schools encourage (and some even require) ballpoint and gel-ink pens. The fountain pen is a dinosaur to most Indians, even to my in-laws, who wondered incredulously why on earth I would prefer to write with one when such excellent gel pens were available (and to their credit, Indian-made gel pens are really quite good). But I'll stick to my ink bottles and fountain pens. There is a relaxing charm in using them that nothing else can match.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

Bilal Hassan

Clarksville, MD

 

P.S: I also wear my grandfather's wind-up watch. THAT had them really scratching their heads in disbelief!

Edited January 27, 2008 by bhassan

[ericthered2004]

Bilal: This was fascinating; thanks for sharing your travel experiences and finds. I had no idea a. that fountain pens saw such little use in India and b. that chinese brands had a big presence there. And the Parker cost a ton, comparatively!

 

Cheers,

Eric

[Ghost Plane]

Thanks for the update. Fascinating. I love wind up watches too. The batteries don't die right when you need them.

[I am not a number]

It mirrors my experience in smaller Indian towns and was a great description of what you find when you go there, thanks for posting!

[Bisquitlips]

This was very interesting. Thanks for sharing your story. Guess I won't be going on any pen hunting excursions to India.

 

My wife and I travel extensively and I was annoyed last year when at the Paris and London flea markets I couldn't find even one pen that I wanted to come home with. I had thought that surly the British would have had a vast supply of vintage Sheaffers and Yard O Leds and the French vintage Waterman's. Perhaps I just had a lean experience. I did purchase a Montblanc Doue at the Munich Airport, but that was it! Sheesh!

 

My very best trip of all time for pen hunting was to Hong Kong in 1991. I was able to purchase Montblancs at 50 cents on the dollar then and came home with several. We are planning another excursion there in 2009 or 10, but I don't know if I will be able to find the same kind of discounts.

 

Thanks again for sharing your experience.

 

[PamHB]

My wife and I travel extensively and I was annoyed last year when at the Paris and London flea markets I couldn't find even one pen that I wanted to come home with.

 

Now that's disappointing to learn! I have my daughter on the lookout for vintage pens in Manchester, on the same assumption. Sounds like lean pickings!

 

It's also facinating to learn about India, but too bad to learn that the FP has all but vanished. I have a colleague that travels regularly to India -- no point in asking him to look

[Lifesaver]

Bilal, thanks for sharing the tales of your adventures. I can see I may have to get a pen pal in India to get in on some of the great deals you found there. Only $.52 for a fountain pen , that's quite a deal. Shipping from India could not be much worse than shipping from China. Thanks again for sharing your story.

[wvbeetlebug]

Awesome finds!

[bhassan]

Bilal, thanks for sharing the tales of your adventures. I can see I may have to get a pen pal in India to get in on some of the great deals you found there. Only $.52 for a fountain pen , that's quite a deal. Shipping from India could not be much worse than shipping from China. Thanks again for sharing your story.

 

Do keep in mind, though, that all the fountain pens (save the Parker) were from old lots sitting in the backs of the stores. I fear that by the next trip, those lots may have been thrown out due to lack of interest. Some of my in-laws told me that in larger cities like New Delhi, there are stationery stores catering to the well-to-do, with handwriting doctors on the premises (no kidding) and they carry Parker, Sheaffer and other fountain pens. But I would expect the prices to be roughly the same as here, especially if the stores are in the ritzier areas of town. This was definitely true in the case of watches, with Seikos, Citizens, etc, being only 20 or so dollars less than their list price in the US. Disappointing.

 

Best Regards.

 

Bilal Hassan

Clarksville, MD

[I am not a number]

New Delhi pen stores are there but there are bargains to be had from street vendors if you are looking for old pens. Connaught Place brought me some good finds.

[jonro]

Bilal: Thanks for posting your Indian fountain pen stories. Very interesting. I'm surprised that you didn't see any of the major Indian brands of fountain pens. I guess that will take a trip to a larger city.

[cmeisenzahl]

Great report, and finds!!

[Shangas]

Hi Bilal,

 

Very interesting finds! I like the cartridge-box

 

Could we possibly have a photo or two of your grandfather's mechanical watch?

[susegad]

I'm surprised you did not try Camlin. I am disappointed that schools do not require the use of FP. I remember using FP from the 5th grade to the 10th grade. Good finds though.

 

 

[handlebar]

Many thanks for the travel experience.Always fun to note what sits on shelves half way around the world.

 

Jim

[sandeep108]

Yes, it is indeed unfortunate that Indian youth are increasingly being discouraged to use FPs and going to the gel/ball pens. Effectively murders formation of good handwriting. I find most handwriting nowadays to be quite scrawly to say the least. My son actually enjoys FPs but his school actually again discourages them and his impression is that he can write faster with gel/ball points rather than FPs.

 

And considering the income levels in these small towns, the cheap FPs would actually be more economical than gel/ball points. I think a bottle of Camlin ink 100ml costs about Rs. 20-25 - about 50-60 cents! And would certainly last more than 5 gels and 8 ball points.

 

[suddenshiv]

Yes, it is indeed unfortunate that Indian youth are increasingly being discouraged to use FPs and going to the gel/ball pens. Effectively murders formation of good handwriting. I find most handwriting nowadays to be quite scrawly to say the least. My son actually enjoys FPs but his school actually again discourages them and his impression is that he can write faster with gel/ball points rather than FPs.

 

And considering the income levels in these small towns, the cheap FPs would actually be more economical than gel/ball points. I think a bottle of Camlin ink 100ml costs about Rs. 20-25 - about 50-60 cents! And would certainly last more than 5 gels and 8 ball points.

 

 

I agree with you there. On the 14th of November last year (14th Nov is celebrated as Children's Day in India), I presented my two daughters with a Parker Vector fountain pen each and introduced them to the joys of writing with a fountain pen. So far, they seem to be enjoying the experience and I hope it continues. They haven't completely stopped using their gels and ballpoints though, as their college / school expects them to use these in some of the journals at least. The good thing is that they have started preferring the fountain pen over the gels and bps.

[Ernst Bitterman]

...their college / school expects them to use these in some of the journals at least.

 

The schools in question can actually tell the difference? Other than "Hey! This writing is well-formed, and the lines are of consistent visual density! They're using the wrong kind of pen!", I can't see how that sort of thing would be enforced.

[DRP]

Congratulations on the Wing Sun pens! Incredible find.

[EventHorizon]

GOOD STUFF............Thanks.

 

I was in and around New Dehli week before last but did not get a chance to explore and find pens. By the time we got done at work around 7:00pm and got some dinner, I was to tired to do much else. Maybe next time