Hi from a small town in India

[neha9t]

Hi Everyone,

 

My new found love for fountain pen arose when I had used Hero's fountain pen recently. I didn't think I would need another fountain pen, but when I searched whether the one I was using has been known to the world, I discovered the community, reviews, blogs, whole websites dedicated to FP markets. It's as if I have found a new land, opened a new door for enriching my life.

 

To introduce myself, I am Neha from a small town in India, a software engineer by profession who has no interest in typing items on To Do List apps, whose productivity gets better with writing. When I started to know about fountain pens, I was astonished to know that it's not a pen, it's a whole system, a functional - technical system. Can't describe how much I am obsessed with creamy colored notebooks esp. grid ones and writing on them. I read a book `The Little book of hygge` and the one thing which I try to implement from that book is in order for encouraging "hygge" into life, it very much depends on how your surroundings are. You may ask what is "hygge"

 

Quotes from that book which struck me : 

Quote

“Hygge has been called everything from “the art of creating intimacy,” “coziness of the soul,” and “the absence of annoyance,” to “taking pleasure from the presence of soothing things,” “cozy togetherness,” and my personal favorite, “cocoa by candlelight”.

 

Quote

“Hygge is humble and slow. It is choosing rustic over new, simple over posh and ambience over excitement. In many ways, hygge might be the Danish cousin to slow and simple living.”

 

And if we think about it, our surroundings are not just limited to our room, desk, chair and balcony or work life etc. That is a high level of thinking, a zoomed out view. How about zooming in! I took it to another level. What if I improve my surroundings with respect to doing one activity and what equipments I use. And this is where I started to look into : the kind of tools I am using and if I love them. I got to know that I didn't love everything which is surrounding my writing domain. I don't pay attention to the pen I used, the notebook I used, the ink I am using. Never paid attention. And this is where I started to surround myself with the most liked things. Here is where I brought fountain pen with INTENTION in my life. And paying attention it deserved. I love filling ink to pen, cleaning its periphery, placing the pen properly and having dedicated pen case for them.  

The more I improved this area of my life, the more I started to care for everything. It has changed my whole outlook for my life. Now, I only want to bring things into my life if I absolutely love them. Because only then I will care of them and by caring for them, that item would get the respect it deserves for serving us.

 

Enough rambling!

 

My first fountain pen was obviously a Hero fountain pen ,which is great! I love how crisp my handwriting comes out. My next fountain pen which I absolutely love is Kanwrite Desire. And I splurged a little on one ASA Galactic pen as well. Can't stress enough, but I love all of them. There is something about the line `MADE IN INDIA` which makes me to respect & wow the effort!  I have not reached to a point where I can differentiate what I like and not like about them. To me they are a treasure.

Ink wise, I am a noob right now.  For my blue ink I am using Pelikan

 

I would want to have at least one Japanese pen. I am obsessed with everything Japan has to offer. Be it their notebooks or pens or inks. I also want to use their signature Iroshizuku inks. 

 

I am so interested to know how others keep their pens organised, what is their routine for keeping them functional, how do they care for them  and what do others write with them, where are the places people use fountain pens and how often expensive pens are being used in daily life and everything surrounding maintenance as all beautiful things remain beautiful if maintained well. And I am still improving in that area.

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to learning more from this community!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PAKMAN]

Hello and Welcome to FPN!! So glad to have you as a member!!

[northstar]

Hello and welcome to FPN.

[christam]

Hello Neha and welcome to FPN.  I enjoyed your intro very much.

[mizgeorge]

Hello and welcome - great first post

[Wahl]

[hari317]

  

you have started off well. There are so many brands to discover. National and international. Good luck!

[TheDutchGuy]

Welcome! Nice to have you here. Stick around, it’s cozy here.

[neha9t]

3 hours ago, TheDutchGuy said:

Welcome! Nice to have you here. Stick around, it’s cozy here.

 

Thank you so much!, Its definitely "Gezellig" out here

[neha9t]

15 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

Hello and welcome - great first post

 

Thank you so much for taking out time and appreciating my writing.

[neha9t]

20 hours ago, christam said:

Hello Neha and welcome to FPN.  I enjoyed your intro very much.

 

Thank you so much for appreciation for my writing. I did write with my whole heart

Edited May 21, 2021 by neha9t
typo

[torstar]

Hi Neha, thank you for your thoughtful introduction, always good to have people develop an interest in the lifestyle and then join us.

 

Kent

[Mamago]

Well written response. It'll inspire me to introduce my self soon, as I just joined a minute ago but have been using fountain pens for 20 years-but ONLY Lamy. So I, too, have a lot to grow with. 

[neha9t]

16 minutes ago, Mamago said:

Well written response. It'll inspire me to introduce my self soon, as I just joined a minute ago but have been using fountain pens for 20 years-but ONLY Lamy. So I, too, have a lot to grow with. 

WOAAAH!, 20 years! You must be in love with Lamy then. Is it Lamy 2000?

[brokenclay]

Welcome! I, too, love  my Kanwrite Desire. It is almost always inked and always feels great on the page. 

[neha9t]

2 minutes ago, brokenclay said:

Welcome! I, too, love  my Kanwrite Desire. It is almost always inked and always feels great on the page. 

That is great to know! I didn't know that it is a popular one! I esp. bought pink one as I have never seen a `cute` `girly pinky pen` Lol. 

Neverthless, Kanwrite is really an amazing pen, just right for my hand size and feels great to write with.

[brokenclay]

I don't know how popular or well known it is in the US, where I am. I bought the orange swirl from Fountain Pen Revolution, and really love it, feels so good.

 

 

 

 

[PuliMorgan]

On 5/21/2021 at 8:56 PM, neha9t said:

That is great to know! I didn't know that it is a popular one! I esp. bought pink one as I have never seen a `cute` `girly pinky pen` Lol. 

Neverthless, Kanwrite is really an amazing pen, just right for my hand size and feels great to write with.

 

 

Oh well, isn't Kanwrite popular? They make great pens with smoothest nibs. I have one Legacy and two Desires (one customised with Ebonite feed for the infamous Noodler's Baystate Blue ink which I use for signatures in office and the other with Krishna Sapphire waterproof ink for signatures at home). Legacy (seen in my profile picture) is the latest product from their line up and is much better and smoother than Lamy Safari, Sheaffer Gift etc. I have written my self introduction in this forum using that pen.

 

You can see another writing sample with Legacy below:

[Mamago]

On 5/21/2021 at 11:18 AM, neha9t said:

WOAAAH!, 20 years! You must be in love with Lamy then. Is it Lamy 2000?

Living in Seattle, the University Book Store just was the most amazing place to get anything, I just fell in love with LAMY. I have all the nibs, I use them on Stillman and Birn medium tooth paper --WITH prismacolor colored pencils AND super good pencils. It's more writing with art included. I've tried on Rhodia/Claire Fontaine and all the other paper-I can't do it. I love the medium. LAMY just did it. But, I'm finally!!! bored with just regular lines. So, we will see. I ordered from Fountain Pen Revolution last week. The Jaipur 1 because I can take it apart and it has separate nib/feed. AND new gorgeous inks. With Ultra flex nib. We'll see! Some day, I'll share. But, I'm also a noob on this site. I think I have to find my people! I DO not have a 500-10,000 pen. Many do. I would love to watch them write, with delicious sighing enjoyment. 

[Wolverine1]

Namaste, Neha-ji!!!  :W2FPN:  !! :):):)

Well, I also come from a small place in North-east in India, though I am a NRI in the US nowadays. Thanks for your most interesting write-up about why you use fountain pens. Thank you.

-Sid