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I laid my hands on a new pen sold by Gem and Co in Madras. The pen appears to be a homage to the legendary Skyline pen. The Skyline was a popular pen in India with several clones already made by Indian pen companies like Wilson etc, some of which are documented here: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/146528-indian-celluloid-pens-with-a-theme/ The pen is petite. Closed: 133mm Open: 122 with nib Posted: 153mm Section dia: 9mm tapers down to 8mm and flares up to 9mm again at the base of nib Barrel dia: 11mm steps down to 10mm for cap Cap dia: 13mm The pen is very nice to look at and gracefully shaped like the original, but is offered in Ebonite in 4 colors, I bought a set of these pens, one in each color. http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0044.jpg http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0043.jpg The clip is spring loaded with a lever at the top which can be depressed to open the clip up. The clip is good, but I found the tension a bit floppy. It is easy to re-tension the clip by unscrewing the cap top finial and bending the washer towards the clip. http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0046.jpg The Stock pen: The stock pen comes with friction fitted yellow steel nib marked Gama, 5 year point and an extra long ebonite feeder. http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0047.jpg http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0054.jpg I am not a very big fan of the stock nib, it is an acceptable nib, but requires some tuning to get it to write the way I like(YMMV), so I decided to fit in a Schmidt nib unit instead. My first attempt, with the black pen, was a disaster . There is very little space. The wall thicknesses come out to 0.25mm in some places. http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0055.jpg I did not give up and decided to proceed with extreme caution the next time, i decided to hack the green one. Success! http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0048.jpg http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0049.jpg http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0050.jpg http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0051.jpg http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0052.jpg http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0053.jpg Stock Vs Modified: http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0056.jpg http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSkyline/IMG_0057.jpg There is not enough space in the section as well as the barrel to accept a converter. I am using the modified pen in ED mode with Pelikan black ink. It is my sole pen at work today. Gem have priced this pen very attractively (I purchased from owner of asapens). In my view, it represents a very good value for money, beautiful ebonite pen, despite some shortcomings like a slightly less springy pocket clip and the lack of an inner cap (whether it has any detriment on performance remains to be seen, I have only just begun to use the pen). Cheers! Hari

Gama pens are made by Gem and Company in Madras, a pen shop in the business since decades. I have reviewed their pens and posted some visit reports earlier, the interested reader may want to see the previous reviews etc at the following links. https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/259557-madras-pen-shops-revisited/ https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/254169-the-gama-supreme/ https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/255781-the-gama-supreme-part-2/ https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/258030-the-asapens-kuyil-made-by-gem-and-co-madras-india/ The Gama Raja is a new introduction to their lineup. Specified by ASA pens(an online pen shop based out of Chennai). I placed my order for the pen as soon as I spotted it on their website (I was slightly miffed to see that I had received no prior intimation about the upcoming model and had to discover it per chance on their site). Raja is what they like to call it, I call my pen the "padpad" . Ok. the Padpad is also a dropper filled pen(regular filling). Made of black hard rubber, brushed finish. I liked the way the golden cap rings and the golden clip gelled with the brushed matte ebonite finish of the pen. It reminded me of my Deccan masterpiece GT which is the only other pen that I have seen with cap rings and a brushed finish. As you might know, the bushed finish is applied by hand using an abrasive paper, so by necessity, the shiny golden rings have to be attached to the pen(by swaging) after the final brushing to the pen is done, a laborious process. The mirror polished cap top and barrel bottom are nice touches. http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9594.jpg http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9595.jpg Cap top: http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9596.jpg Open: http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9597.jpg The padpad came fitted with the standard issue 2 tone EF nib that Gem likes to use. When set up properly, the nib is a delightful true EF writer, however EF is not my size at all usually( unless it is a Pilot), I like M or fatter and one has to make do with what one has on hand, I had only M nibs in GT so I fitted my own nib to the pen and tuned it. For some practical reason, they decided to very deeply set the huge 35mm nib thus somewhat negating (IMHO, YMMV) the advantage afforded by the bigger nib. As shown in the following picture, a standard and cheaper Indian no 8 nib (28mm) could have done the job sufficiently well on the Padpad. http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9598.jpg I guess the reason they did this was primarily due to the washer clip, where they wanted the washer's edges displayed for cosmetic effect. The washer has too small an ID to allow the nib to pass through it. Hence, a longer exposed length of the nib would have meant a longer length of the cap, so they arrived at this deep set nib design to achieve a nice balance. I have nothing much to comment about the writing aspect as the aftermarket nib in the pen was installed and set up by me, to my preference. The padpad is a good sized pen: capped: 147mm open: 131mm including the nib posted: 168mm Cap diameter, max: 15mm Barrel diameter, max: 14mm Section diameter: 12mm, tapers to 11mm and then flares. A comparison of the padpad with some other pens at hand: http://i991.photobucket.com/albums/af39/hari3171/GamaPadPad/IMG_9600.jpg L-R: Early 14C nib M800, Padpad, Kuyil, GT Supreme FT. Cheers! Hari

The Gem and Company in Chennai, India is a pen shop in business for over 80 years now. In addition to selling third party pens, this shop manufactures and sells their in house fountain pens under the brand name Gama. Previously, I have documented their following models: Supreme part 1 Supreme Part 2 Kuyil Padpad/Raja Kambar part 1 Kambar part 2 In addition, some information about the shop itself can be found in the following links: Visit report 2008 Visit report 2014 This Gama "Gundu pena" (fat pen) was always popular among the FP user folks of Chennai, in recent times the owner of gem and co and their dealer ASApens.in have been very active in bringing out a slew of new models to fit varying hands, tastes and sizes. The Saral is, I think, their latest offering. Saral means "easy" in Hindi. It also can mean "simple" depending on the usage. I think translated into English, the Saral would be called "The Gama Simpleton". My first impression was "simple form, functional pen". Cylindrical cap, functional spring steel ball clip, simple tapered barrel to allow the cap to be posted, barrel length is sufficient to use unposted, ebonite for keeping the weight light, and hard wearing brushed finish. The dimensions of the pen are as under: Capped: 148mm Uncapped: 132mm(including nib length) Barrel dia:14mm Cap dia: 15.6mm Section dia: 12.5mm at barrel threads tapering to 11mm just before the nib base flare. Posted: 177mm The pens came to me without the nib and feed fitted, I wanted to do my own fitting to it since I rarely use the stock nibs anyway. Closed http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSaral/IMG_9887.jpg Opened http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSaral/IMG_9888.jpg Section removed:The ends of the cap and barrel are polished. http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSaral/IMG_9889.jpg 800 and JoWo nib units installed: http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSaral/IMG_9890.jpg http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSaral/IMG_9891.jpg Size comparison with an old M800: http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSaral/IMG_9892.jpg Finally a group photo of the all Gama models in my collection: http://i1269.photobucket.com/albums/jj582/hari-317/GamaSaral/IMG_9886.jpg L-R: Kambar Mk-II, Kambar Mk-I, Postable Kambar, Supreme Flattop, Supreme Cigar, Kuyil, Hawk, Eyas, Raja, Saral and Popular. I did not know what will arrive in the post, when the Saral was described to me. However when I received these pens on Friday, I found that I like the simple lines of this pen very much, enough to consider making me carry one as the sole carry on the two day out of town trip that I will go on Monday morning. Cheers! Hari