The Pen Show is certainly one event that cannot be described in any matter-of-fact manner – simply because of the sheer passion of the people it helps bring together. People who are fired by an all-consuming passion, people who are inked together by their love for the writing implements. Yes, I am saying this in full knowledge of the tectonic shift that the handhelds and the smart phones have ushered in, some say, delivering the death flow to the fountain pen, which was already gasping for breath, fatally wounded as it was, by the onslaught of the roller-balls.
Yet, that the pen shows continue to attract the attention of the seekers is perhaps more than just a refurbishment of the pure passion of the people involved – pen-smiths, penophiles, stylophiles, collectors. That their ranks are swelling is the good news – fountain pens, once considered dead and buried, are slowly and steadily making a comeback, perhaps not as the writing implement of the common man, but certainly as an accessory; as an item fit to be loved, even collected; as an extension of personalities that rise above the mundane.
And it is these exciting times that the 1st India Pen Show is being organised at the Nehru Centre Mumbai on the 2nd and the 3rd of February 2019. The organisers (may their tribe increase) are billing the event as the “Mega Fountain Pen Carnival” and hope to bring together pen lovers, collectors, traders, dealers and aficionados from around the world. Naturally, though the primary focus of the two-day event will be fountain pens, it will also help exhibit everything that is associated like paper, inks, nibs and the like.
The high-point of the event will be a tribute to poet-lyricist Kaifi Azmi whose fetish for the blue-black ink and collection of Montblanc pens (he had eighteen of them) is legendary.
However, there is one reason above all these, which alone makes the effort of the organisers worth every praise. The event will help showcase the work of the Indian pen turners, hopefully to a global audience. It will not be out of place to point out as a fact, the emergence of a few Indian creators of fine writing instruments in the near past and I am sure that they will use the opportunity to showcase their prized conceptions. The flag bearers of Indian pen-making, the century old houses from the South too, will be there in full force, I hope. As will be the various one-man armies who are living proof of the adage “the pen is mightier than the sword”, entrepreneurs who have survived all adversities, driven by passion and little else.
As for lovers of Fountain Pens, and India has more of us than it is normally acknowledged, the event is God sent. To be in the midst of all those pens, among fellow aficionados – people who make them and those who collect and write with them – will be no less than a pilgrimage!
The event is being sponsored by MagnaCartaPen and Constellations88 – which have both curved out distinct niches for themselves as the makers of fine writing instruments. As a matter of fact, both companies show promise and are widely considered to be poised for greater glories.
William Penn, with its exclusive collection of Branded Pens, Gift Sets & Accessories from some of the most revered names in the world is a title sponsor of the event.
For More information visit the event website:
https://theindiapenshow.com/