HYDERABAD: The smooth glide of the nib on paper, the ritual of refilling ink cartridges and the distinctive charm of handwritten notes. Those were the days when every stroke felt like a personal expression. Reminiscing the days of ink-stained hands and notebooks, several writers, calligraphists, artists and pen enthusiasts congregated at the first-ever India Pen Show at AMB Cinemas, Gachibowli last weekend.
Mumbai-based Vishal Singhi has about 8,000+ unique fountain pens in his collection. Connecting with other enthusiasts over the years, he garnered enough support to hold a massive exhibition in Mumbai in 2019. This three-day event invites about 50 exhibitors every year from across the country and holds around 80 workshops in about 8000 sq ft area. With such a warm response, he decided to bring the exhibition to Bengaluru and Hyderabad as well.
The two-day Hyderabad event saw a footfall of about 1,500 visitors each day. Some of the oldest companies like Ranga were seen at the exhibition besides Woodex and PLP.
Talking about the idea behind The India Pen Show, Singhi said, “We want more people to get into the hobby of writing. People are moving towards the digital age. Some studies show that the memory span is greater with handwritten notes than with typed ones. The creative juices flow in more when you write. When you type, your typing speed is faster than your thinking speed and your brain is not able to catch up to it. But when you write with a fountain pen, you are aware that it is a delicate instrument and tend to write slow.”
Singhi said that he acquired the hobby of collecting fountain pens as a kid. “I used to collect those cheap and multi-coloured ones. However, the hobby got lost somewhere. It was only when I started working and saw my office colleagues using these pens, that I revived my interest in it. I started collecting them in 2007,” he added.
Several factors play into a fountain pen becoming a part of his collection. The type, build and design are the least of it. “As a collector, I look at pens from different countries, and what kind of ink-filling mechanism they deploy. Some require to be filled with syringes. In some pens, you have to pull the segment of it up to fill ink in them. Some have to be pressed, there is a button you keep pressing four to five times,” he said.
Singhi also has pens built from the fragments of INS Vikrant and Apollo 11. There is another made from the volcanic lava stone of Mount Etna. “It absorbs sweat from palms and is fire-proof,” he said. There is a whole range of commemorative pens that either offer tribute to legends or are associated with some events. One such pen is a limited-edition Parker pen made specifically for Princess Diana and Prince Charles’ wedding. There were only 1,000 such pens made and had the wedding date inscribed on it.
Inspired and guided by Vishal’s passion for pens, his wife Nisha started her brand of handmade fountain pens, Wazir. A more sustainable option, a fountain pen can last about a hundred years; certainly more durable than plastic ball pens. As far as ink is concerned, the range of colours has expanded from a mere five to over 500 shades in India. The build varies from metal, which includes aluminium, brass, copper, and steel to acrylic, resin and even cotton fibre.
“The cotton fibre pens are extremely light, weighing less than 25g and people with arthritis can use them easily,” Singhi said. The exhibition saw visitors from all age groups—revelling in the artistic pleasure of writing and drawing with fountain pens. The price range starts from about `100 and goes up to lakhs.
Right in the middle of the room, we saw calligraphists Zahid Akram and Sameer Mehta displaying their talent to the visitors by writing their names in exquisite fonts. On another corner, a Mandala workshop kept children engaged. Providing space for the art of collecting itself, a corner was also dedicated to the collection of P Seeta Ram Raju, a 71-year-old collector of documents, ancient objects, currency, stamps and even fossils.