Backgrounder
The 6th Inked Happiness Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed upon Dr Bibek Debroy on July 27th 2024 in a ceremony befitting the occasion in the Vivekananda Hall of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark. Swami Suviranandaji Maharaj handed over the Award in the presence of Swami Suparnanandaji Maharaj, Kaushik Maitra the Managing Director of Sulekha, and Chawm Ganguly of Inked Happiness. The Maestro, Prof K C Janardhan, was the master of ceremonies. Swapan Kumar Haldar, General Manager (lubes), of Indian Oil was also on the dais.
Genesis
Chawm Ganguly has been collecting fountain pens for over three decades and has a sizeable collection of pens, inks, and accessories. His focus is on fountain pens manufactured in India and their histories. Appalled by a general lack of knowledge about fountain pens, inks, and accessories, he started the blog www.inkedhappiness.com. Inked Happiness continues to be one of its kind in India and is globally acknowledged by the community of collectors. Inked Happiness has since created its own YouTube channel: @inkedhappiness. Over the years, he has expanded his horizon to popularise the use of fountain pens, especially among the young, and to help Indian pen and ink brands attract the kind of visibility that they deserve.
The Inked Happiness Lifetime Achievement Award was constituted in 2019 to honour lives dedicated to the fountain pen, paper, ink, and the furtherance of their cause. Over the years, the honour has been bestowed upon pen and ink luminaries like Yusuf Mansoor, Sudhir Kalyanikar, Prof. K C Janardhan, Prof. Y Pitkar, and Dr. Sovon Roy. The highly regarded Inked Happiness Lifetime Achievement Award continues to be perhaps, the only such award in the global fountain pen fraternity. The 6th Inked Happiness Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed upon Dr Bibek Debroy. The K C Janardhan, Limited Edition, Signature ink was also launched.
Thanks to the single-minded devotion of the recipients, fountain pens are making a resurgent comeback with more and more people acknowledging their virtues. That fountain pens and inks offer the most sustainable writing option; that they can help reduce the menace of plastic pollution caused by use-and-throw ball-point pens; that writing with them not only provides an unparalleled pleasure but also helps retain knowledge better; that they are a potent tool against several psycho-somatic issues; that they can be the petard of protest against the digital damnation of our lives; are all being noted, which explains the slow, but steady shift. Collecting fountain pens as a hobby is also gaining currency by the day. The contribution of Chawm Ganguly and Inked Happiness in all this cannot be overemphasized.
The Recipient
Dr Bibek Debroy, needs no introduction as an economist, academician, and author. He is also a lifelong user of fountain pens made in India. He has written extensively about Indian fountain pens, their legacies, the development of the industry, and how it has overcome the challenges over the years.
Dr Debroy has held different positions in his long and distinguished career, excelling in every one of them. He has been awarded by organizations and institutions from around the world, and his erudite thoughts on different subjects ranging from spirituality to economics continue to educate and enlighten.
Dr Bibek Debroy is the Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.
The Master of Ceremonies
Prof. K C Janardhan, the Maestro, was the Master of Ceremonies. There are very few in the world who have done more for handwriting, lettering, and calligraphy than Prof Janardhan. He has held his writing masterclasses around the world, been a professional calligrapher for over three decades, created, and curates the one-of-a-kind museum dedicated to writing and writing instruments in Bangalore. He is closely associated with the iconic brand Montblanc. A polymath, he has fought and triumphed over the debilitating disease, of epilepsy to achieve all that he has. Prof Janardhan has also fought the General elections as an independent candidate, twice, to spread awareness about writing and writing instruments.
The K C Janardhan Signature Ink
The K C Janardhan signature edition ink – a tribute to the Maestro from Sulekha was also launched. The ink, the first of its kind in India dedicated to a living legend, has been deliberately priced to be the most expensive Indian ink, as it proudly carries the Maestro’s signature, apart from being comparable to the best inks of its type in the world.
The Presenters
Kalam Club: Kalam Club is a charitable organization: a Trust dedicated to spreading awareness about the fountain pen, ink, and the advantages of writing. Kalam Club has already visited more than a hundred educational institutions where it has organized seminars, workshops, and pen and ink giveaways. Buoyed by the extremely positive response from the students, their parents, and teachers, Kalam Club has chalked up a roadmap to conduct more such outreach programs. Kalam Club is backed by teachers, psychologists, education administrators, and entrepreneurs.
IndianOil: The petroleum behemoth was among the prime movers to embrace fountain pens and ink as a means to stem the tide of plastic pollution and the digital overwhelm of lives. Fountain pens and inks were adapted for corporate gifting, awareness creation drives are conducted among the employees, and one of its departments was designated as disposable-pen-free, where only fountain pens and inks are used daily. Indian Oil has also supported different initiatives by Sulekha and Kalam Club and hopes to strengthen the association further for the greater good of the environment and society.
Sulekha: Sulekha started its journey in 1934 when freedom fighters wanted to create a Swadeshi ink for Gandhiji to write with. After creating history with many firsts to its credit, the entity was forced to down shutters in the late 1980s due to various socio-political reasons. Opened under the direction of the Hon High Court in 2004, Sulekha has reclaimed its position as the prime mover in the market. She is now spearheading the fight to popularize the use of fountain pens and inks, especially among the young. Sulekha is also helping expand the depth and spread of the market through many innovative steps like corporate associations, pushing inks as a medium of expression for artists, association with the industry mouthpiece Inked Happiness, and the creation of a not-for-profit trust, Kalam Club.
The Nepal Connection
Atul Koirala, the Secretary of the Sushil Koirala Memorial Foundation has been closely associated with the working of Inked Happiness since its inception. He has participated in different fountain pen events and is the moving spirit seeking to bring together the fountain pen and ink lovers in Kathmandu. He has also been instrumental in organizing various programs aimed at popularizing the use of fountain pens and inks, highlighting the fact that they offer the most sustainable writing option. Atul Koirala presented Dr Bibek Debroy the recipient of the 6th Inked Happiness Lifetime Achievement Award a Sheaffer fountain pen – the kind of which was earlier given to all the members of the Parliament of Nepal. Similar pen was also presented by Sri Koirala to globally renowned Calligrapher Prof K C Janardhan; Kaushik Maitra the Managing Director of Sulekha and Chawm Ganguly of Inked Happiness. Acknowledging the great work being done by Sri Koirala and expressing their gratitude, they went on record stating that they looked forward to visiting Nepal to take the mission to popularise handwriting and the use of fountain pens in Nepal.
watch the video here: