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HELLO FPN MEMBERS I am a Delhi based research student who has just entered in the world of fountain pens. I purchased two fountain pens Pilot Metropolitan and Jinhao X750 from Ravi’s Pens point very recently after my disappointment with Camlin Trinity (its ink flow turned out to be terrible). I have decided I won’t upgrade to Lamy or TWSBI now. I know you guys might get be getting this a lot to the extent it might sound little banal but I am looking for budget fountain pens under 1000 INR (15 dollars). I am thinking to buy a platinum preppy soon but I really want to try some Indian fountain pens and will be glad to get some recommendations especially that are decent writers for long writing sessions. I prefer my Jinhao over my Metropolitan so I think I have a preference for a medium nib. Also I have realized, a paper has a considerable impact on the performance of a fountain pen. After the recommendation by Ravi, I tried locating JK cedar 100gsm in North Delhi only to end my search in dismay (couldn’t find it anywhere in stationaries but I have not tried Nayi Sadak). The price offered by Amazon for Cedar is more than 400 INR (including delivery charges). I am looking for budget decent performing notebooks or sheets for note-making and daily writing that are good alternatives to Cedar. Other issue I am facing is drying of ink in my Metropolitan. I used Ravi’s (pen point South ex) Ink with my Metropolitan but I have realized I have to shake it repeatedly otherwise it stops writing and it also dries quickly. I can’t write and read simultaneously with metropolitan’s cap dismounted. Although I didn’t face the same problem when I used Pelikan 4001 with Jinhao and the uncapped Jinhao performs decently even after I don’t put back the pen cap quickly. I think it is the drying problem of the ink and not the pen. I have used Camlin royal blue ink and found it a decent performing ink. What are other decent budget inks that don’t get dry quickly? Any insights on the above issues would be appreciated.

Yesterday i purchased a new camlin royal blue ink from local shop. After filling it up it felt completely different. I used this ink after a long time and i don't have old bottle for comparison but i can say that color has darken from before. My main issue with it is now it feels completely flat to write with. As of writing with a roller ball ink. Is it a bad batch, or result of change of formula?