Search the Community

I have been an exclusive fountain pen user for more than a decade. My first introduction to fountain pens were in my school days with 'N' number of pens being lost or broken or replaced with new launches at the local pen shops. During my college days, it has been an array of ball point pens. It was only during my internship days as a doctor, I shifted back to this exquisite experience of using fountain pens. Since then I have been trying out various brands from across the globe from Parker to Montblanc. Though I was aware of a few Indian fountain pen makers, I have always had this preconceived notion about the quality of Indian pens and have never opted to own one during those times. Finally finishing my post graduation and masters successfully with a steel nib Waterman Hemisphere I took a nose dive into the global fountain pen market accumulating a few more fountain pens to my collection and later dealing with the post purchase guilt. Still my prejudice towards Indian pens was strong and couldn't reason out with myself into buying one. It was in one of those early COVID lockdown days, druing a long phone call with a good two decade old friend Dr. Gautham Srinath, my prejudice was shattered. Though being friend for over two decades we never knew about our mutual interests in fountain pens. It was him who suggested to me about Ranga pens By Mr. M.S. Pandurangan along with his son Mr. M.P. Kandan, A company with over 50 years of experience in making hand rolled fountain pens catering to the needs of fountain pen enthusiasts across the globe. Me being myself, was still reluctant in giving it a shot, came up with various reasons to push aside the group buy offers from Ranga pens put forth by my friend and him being himself got fed up with me and gifted me one. The pen arrived. First Impressions As per the epic Mahabharata Abhimanyu was a young legendary warrior, who with his valiant skills in combat proved to be a worthy opponent to his enemies, the mighty Kauravas. In my view the Ranga Pens Abhimanyu is in its own way a legendary warrior. The pen was made in premium acrylic with a clean flawless polished finish and with no clip. A screw type cap on the barrel enclosing the Schmidt K5 converter. Uncapping the pen, the section along with the barrel reveals an hourglass shaped pen. The nib section came with a Jowo threaded nib unit with a size #35 dual tone Ranga steel nib fine tip with a plastic feeder. A well balanced, aptly weighed pen for my medium sized hands (Glove size 7.5). A closer inspection revealed mild lathe marks on the barrel but over all this pen was an eye candy! and the legendary young warrior from Ranga pens had proven himself worthy. Score:- Abhimanyu vs Me 1-0. First Write After watching the pen over and over again and laughing at my ignorant preconceived notion about the quality of Indian pens, it was zero hour. A dip in the ink bottle and after a few twists and turns of the Schmidt convertor, the chamber was full. The first stroke of the nib on the paper was exquisite. Another couple of my self conceived myth busted, plastic feeds can be tuned to provide wet and flawless writing and Indian steel nibs are in par with their global counterparts. Abhimanyu was winning again. The fine tip was a tad thicker than than the Japanese counterparts but nothing to complain. After draining the ink in the convertor and I decided to take a walk down the memory lane, Eye-dropper. I remember the initial days of my fourth grade when I was first introduced to fountain pens, ink stained fingers were a proud way of showing people that I've started using fountain pens and have grown up. The last time I used an ED was in 9th grade shifting to CC fillers later. So going through some preliminary videos about ED filling on YouTube, I moved forward. Applied the silicon grease and took up a syringe and filled the barrel with ink till the threads, Primed the nib and put the pen to use. Not requiring to ink your pen for a considerable amount of time was definitely a nostalgic experience and NO LEAKS NOR BURPS!! my wish of showing people that I am a fountain pen user was flushed down the drain. Score Abhimanyu vs Me 4-0. Advantage Abhimanyu. Final Word Time to concede defeat. I surrender! Hailing from the state that houses Ranga Pens and being a fountain pen user/enthusiast and not owning one for a long time was a reminder to myself of the saying "Never judge a book by its cover". It was my irrational preconceived notion on Indian pens that had forestalled me in owning this gem of a creation. It is one of the few rare instances in my life where I was glad to be proven wrong. This young legendary warrior Abhimanyu won me over the battle of my preconceived notions on Indian pens. PS: Roll stopper clip from Magna Carta Pens.