The story of fountain pen making in India was one that begged to be told. Not because there is today a thriving community of fountain pen users in the country, a substantial portion of which will be interested in such a tale. Not because it is a legacy that very
The Superite fountain pen is an enigma of sorts. For starters, there is so little information in the public domain about the brand or the pens they made. Surprising, a pity even, considering the fact that the fountain pens in question were of excellent quality, and their vintage is just
As is only to be expected, ink is older than pens, not to speak of fountain pens. Across old civilizations, India, Egypt, China, Rome, ink was used, based on lamp-black and pigments with plant, animal and mineral origins. The history of those experiments and innovations is often forgotten. Something like
Write your way out, a-la Shakespeare or Camus, to create for eternity. For the dawn will certainly break. Shakespeare was apparently quarantined when he had written “King Lear”. I have no way of knowing for certain whether he was ever quarantined in the real sense of the term as we
Quotes from two famous authors illustrate how perceptions about the fountain pen changed. The first is Mark Twain (1835-1910). This famous quote is “None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try.” This was part of Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar
Bibek Debroy is an economist and was educated in Ramakrishna Mission School, Narendrapur; Presidency College, Kolkata; Delhi School of Economics and Trinity College, Cambridge. Presently, he is Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) and President, Indian Statistical Institute (ISI). He has worked in Presidency College, Kolkata (1979-83),
Onoto, Oxford and Cambridge, the quintessentially British search for excellence! Oxford and Cambridge, the two oldest universities in the United Kingdom, according to popular lore, are bitterly pitted against each other – a rivalry, raconteurs add gleefully, that dates back centuries. Perhaps the fact that both were founded about 800
