India Pen Show in Mumbai – are you pilgrims ready?

1^st India Pen Show in Mumbai – Why I will attend, and you should too.

We are different. We are fountain pen-abled. No, neither is this the “new normal” nor are we big enough as a class to be wooed politically, our numbers not significant enough to make electoral differences, leave alone our collective voice being heard. We are nerds by nature, we spend more than what we can afford in the pursuit of pens, and most of us believe that pens are more human than most of the people populating the peripheries of our individual spaces. We talk to our pens, share our little pleasures (and pains) with them, lapse into absolutely warranted (and terribly boring to lesser mortals) monologues about piston filling systems and get hurt when we are rudely asked to shut up. Oh yes, we also don’t understand why our friends and relatives and colleagues do not like, comment and share the pictures (of pens, what else) that we so religiously post in the social media.

We rue the death of the friendly neighbourhood stationary shop, where the owner would pander to our fetishes and help us in our quest for that Grail pen that all of us dream of possessing. We spend most of our free time either reading posts in Pen forums or searching the farthest corners of the net for pen trivia that we have no one to impress with. Why, some of us even suffer from acute pen-o-philia – an object attraction of a pen-ile kind (no pun intended)!

It is for people like us that the India Pen Show is being organised, just the way Pen Shows have been organised since their inception. Here we meet tribe members and realise that we are not alone in our search for that elusive “Sweet Spot” of the inky kind. Here we meet “like minded” people who are as crazy about pens as we are, if not more. Here, we meet people from the apogee of their professional careers and vagabonds who are jay-walking through life – united by a passion that transcends all the divisive forces of the world. Here we meet lovers, flower children of another kind, giving pen (and peace) a chance!

Experts, Collectors, Dealers, Turners – we meet them all under one roof, with inks and notebooks and accessories thrown in for good measure. At first it is overwhelming, intimidating even. Then the realisation breaks, that the fountain pen is a great leveller and that it is neither the size of your collection nor the knowledge that you profess, but your love, that matters – no wonder they call it mightier than the sword. The pen conquering literally, where the sword fails!

A pen show is table after table of fantasies spread for you to ogle at, to touch, to put on paper, to caress, to possess. Pen makers and dealers that you don’t ordinarily meet, ready and willing to pander to your senses with the latest and the best that they have to offer. If the pens (and the paper and the inks) are a joy to behold, then, meeting and befriending these people is sheer ecstasy. Friendships that can be inked and bonds that can last lifetimes like that White Dot on the Targa. Off course, if you are on the other end of the table, it is also a unique opportunity to meet your customers, the industry experts, network, and wait for it all to reflect on your bottom line. No, the cold efficiency of doing business in the net can not match the warmth of dealing across the table that is accorded in a pen show, just the way a stylus can never match the sheer pleasure of scratching your thoughts with a pen and seeing the ink dry, to give your words the gravity that they deserve.

Okay, a pen show is one where I lose all bearings and end up buying on whims, the impulsive dolt that I am. Okay, there is always that know-it-all person in our lives who will claim to have seen the same pen being sold cheaper in the net. Okay, there is always that possibility that a hairline crack will surface after you check your prized acquisition back from the show. But what the heck? The same things would hold wherever you buy them from. And as for Pen Show purchases being more expensive, one must understand that the costs incurred to attend these shows have to be recovered but still, if you ask me, they mostly offer the best deals.

And now India’s biggest Pen Event – The 1^st India Pen Show – is slated to be held on February 2^nd and 3^rd 2019 at the Nehru Centre, Mumbai. The Event is being presented by William Penn and is supported by, among others, Manga Carta and Constellations88.

I will be there at the India Pen Show. Are you coming?

 

 

For More information visit the event website:

https://theindiapenshow.com/