Pen enthusiasts come together to flaunt their collection

Pune, September 21: A pen is not just something we grab to write. Not at least for those who collect them! Beautiful looking, smoothest writing, antique and sometimes even pricier than jewellery. Surendra Karamchandani of Venus Traders took lead in inviting city’s 25 passionate pen collectors at Darshan Restaurant on Friday for a program titled as ‘Pelikan Hub’ to showcase and discuss their fabulous collection of pens.

‘Pelikan Hub’ is an international pen collector’s event which is organized on the 3rd Friday of every September, at 6:30pm local time in 199 cities spread across 48 countries in the world. In India it took place in about 10 cities. This was the second consecutive year of this initiative in Pune.

Some well-known and passionate Pen collectors from the city showcased their outstanding collection of pens to fellow pen lovers. Some of them include Surendra Karamchandani, Arun Jugdar, Dipesh Mehta and Vijay Nimbre with many others. Makrand Kale, from the family of Pune’s one of the oldest pen manufacturing company- ‘Kale Pens’ was felicitated on the occasion for their unique contribution to the world of writing instruments.

Kale Pens were very much famous among the scholars and school going children specially since 60s to 80s. They were best known for the quality of pens, nibs and ink and for their policy to provide 2 to 7 year’s guarantees on pen’s manufacturing. The young generation of Kales- Manas and Mandar Kale were also present on the occasion.

Dipesh Mehta said that as a pen collector, he finds it important to check the distinctive feature of the nib, ink filling system, ink flow and material of the pen before adding any new pen to his collection. ‘‘I have a ‘Pilot Justus 95’ pen which can be used two-ways- as a regular fountain pen as well as a pen with flexible nib. I also have a ‘Montblanc Meisterstück’ fountain pen, which has amazing nib quality. This pen can cost for around Rs. 65 thousand today. The world-famous manufacturing companies are mainly German, Italian, American or Japanese. There are some good pen manufacturers in India too, but many of them have closed down now.’’

Sharing his experience, Vijay Nimbare said, ‘‘In the school days, I was known for my good handwriting. Later I started using ballpens and observed that my handwriting has become miserably poor! This made me think about using fountain pens again and later I became a pen collector.’’

Nimbare said, ‘‘You’ll find the fountain pen in the range of Rs. 25 to a collector’s item of Rs.20 lack. An ink bottle also may vary in price from Rs. 25 for a 60 ml bottle to Rs.1200 per 60 ml. I particularly like the simple ‘Bril’ fountain pens in my collection as well as the pricy ‘Omas’ and ‘Onoto’ pens. I regularly use pens from my collection and maintain them by cleaning and polishing.’’

Makrand Kale told about the journey of Kale Pens. He said, ‘‘My father Murlidhar Gopal Kale started this brand in 1970s. That time, the fountain pens were widely used by students and academics. My father brought the blue-black shade of ink also, which was new at that time. The ink was prepared at our home in a steel utensil using color crystals and acid. Ballpens got popular in the early 80s as they were cheap and convenient. We did not want to compromise on the quality of our ink-pens and so it could not be sold in lesser cost like ballpens. As ballpens grew, people started using the fountain pens only for special purposes like doing signature and the market sizably shrunk.’’

Kale also mentioned that many pen collectors and people who used Kale pens in their school days, keep asking him about when they will start the production again. ‘‘We are thinking about starting manufacturing again, like a limited edition of Kale Pens. I hope we will come out with something concrete in this regard by the next year.’’ , Said Kale.