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India ink fountain pens4/7/2023 That’s the reason I said fountain-pens are a good case study for tracking evolution of economic policy. To appreciate the Abid Hussain comment, do realise trade and technology policy were involved. I suspect it had to do with quality and choice. For a reason I no longer recall, the default choice for ink became Quink, not Sulekha. No more smudged fingers, though occasional staining of pockets continued. A suction mechanism arrived on the side of the pen, eventually over-taken by a syringe at the bottom. As we moved up in school, technology changed and was regarded as a great marvel. They had to be taken out, cleaned and re-inserted, or replaced with new nibs. They leaked, smudged our fingers and stained our pockets, evidence we were studying hard. But yes, those fountain-pens didn’t screw on properly. Lamenting the inferior quality consequent to self-reliance, I have heard the late Abid Hussain say, many years ago, “We produced fountain-pens that were more fountains than pens.” For fountain-pens, this sounds a bit harsh. In our school-days, Royal Blue was the default option, though I think Black was around. When I looked at the types of Sulekha ink now available, I was surprised at the choice-Black, Blue Black, Crystal Violet, Emerald Green, Flaming Orange, Master Brown, Moss Green, Royal Blue, Scarlet Red, Shocking Pink and Turquoise Blue. Temporarily, Sulekha Works closed down, but has started again. Therefore, every bottle of Sulekha ink arrived with the mandatory picture of Gandhiji. Sulekha Works, started initially in 1934 in what is now Bangladesh, was identified with self-reliance and the Independence movement, and had the implicit blessings of Mahatma Gandhi. Though fountain-pens weren’t branded, the ink certainly was. There were certainly branded fountain-pens, Parker for one. Obviously, they must have had names, but these names weren’t brands in the sense we use the word “brand”. Don’t ask me for names of these fountain-pen brands. Instead, every morning, you used an eye-dropper to fill the pen with ink. ![]() ![]() ![]() The fountain-pens could store ink, but they didn’t yet possess syringes or suction mechanisms that could suck the ink up. Blotting paper was still around, but you didn’t need to carry ink-pots to school. When William was in school, it was the era of ink-pots and blotting paper. To emphasise what I said about real-life examples, I think Britain’s war-time rationing is described phenomenally well in Richmal Crompton’s “Just William” series, much better than any academic’s laboured depiction. At some point, we were allowed to graduate to fountain-pens, ball-point pens being nowhere in the picture. It had to be pencils, also used in classes on cursive writing. In initial years of school, we weren’t allowed to use pens. ![]() Such accounts become more alive if one uses real-life examples and I think someone should write a piece on the decline and recent rise of the fountain-pen. The letters were probably written with a nib-pen, with the nib being dipped in an ink-pot, there being nothing to store ink inside the pen.) There are plenty of accounts of India’s economic transition. (This might not even have been a fountain-pen. In old, 19th century files, I chanced upon some correspondence and the calligraphy (there is no other word for it) is something to treasure. This doctor’s prescription is a sight to behold and yes, he swears by a fountain-pen. Medical prescriptions are known for their illegibility. As I always do in situations like this, I asked her to sign it for me and was pleasantly surprised when she produced a fountain-pen. Recently, an author came to present me with a copy of her new book.
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