A Brief Review Of Gama Ezuthani Demonstrator

[SOMNATH]

About a month and a half back my elder brother Amitava who lives in Mumbai happened to visit Chennai, the capital of Tamilnadu on some Official errands. The city of Chennai involuntarily reminded me of two names- one is ASA Pens and the other is Gem and Co, both related to fountain pens and that too handmade. Gem and Co is the original maker of the Indian "Gama " brand with ASA Pens being its marketing outlet. So I called up my brother and in passing mentioned about these two names and forgot about it.To my utter suprise, Amitava took it seriously and took some time out from his otherwise packed official engagements and managed to mobilize a local gentleman from his Office who knew the city well and did all the travelling and managed to locate Gem & Co and meet its proprietor Mr Pratap Kumar. My brother though not a great pen enthusiast, was a regular user of fountain pens in his school days in Shillong where we grew up together and till this date carries fond memories of the place and the fountain pens that he used.

 

Amitava struck up a conversion with Mr. Pratap Kumar who was a very knowledgeable person. My brother describes the shop as having seen better days which still operates with memories of bygone eras and a hope for the future. Mr Kumar insisted that Amitava send snaps of the models that were in ready stock to me before making any final choice because he very rightly thought that serious fountain pen enthusiasts were very fussy about selecting their right stuff and give the impression that as though they were buying a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. I received snaps of seven to eight Gama models out of which I selected four because i didn't have them. They were Gama Sneaky, Gama Airborne, Gama Master Piece and bringing up the rear was a beautiful Gama Ezuthani clear demonstrator, which is my subject of review today.

The Gem & Co store ( pic courtesy Amitava Gupta).

 

The GAMA EZUTHANI is a beautiful clear demonstrator desk pen of archaic looks with a cap. The body is clear and transparent which includes the section too. Look wise the pen is a show stopper by virtue of its very elegant design, aristocratic look and of course the brilliant craftsmanship imparting the Gama Ezuthani a very neat and clean look. Besides being a good looking pen it is also a fully functional and a consistently good performer. The pen has an Eye dropper filling mechanism. Inside the transparent barrel there is an inner transparent tubular ink tank , about 1 & 1/2 inches long which can take in a good volume of ink, which means that you need to fill it and forget it for quite a while. When the Ezuthani is inked it look very gorgeous and eye catching.

Mr. Pratap Kumar in the middle and Amitava to his left. (pic courtesy Amitava Gupta)

A full view of the pen

 

The pen is long and slender and has a rounded cap with a slender section which is about 8 mm. The diameter of the barrel increases from the end of the section and then gradually tapers downward ending in a somewhat pointed but circular rounded bottom. The barrel threads are pretty smooth and it is easy to screw or unscrew the barrel from the section. One good thing I noticed the about the Gama Ezuthani demonstrator is that the cap threads are located inside the cap and that there is no corresponding thread grooves at the junction of the barrel and the section. The drop from the barrel to the section is abrupt but causes no hindrance in holding the the pen since the length of the section is adequate and smooth. The Ezuhani is a light weight pen and is wonderfully balanced despite its long and elongated barrel. I found this pen to be ideal for writing long sessions without any fatigue to the wrist and the grip fingers.

 

 

Comparison with Ratnam's " Kalam".

The Gama Ezuthani came fitted with a fine tipped stock nib on which the word "GAMA" and the letter G was etched. The pen writes wet and smooth with a feeble feed back which is up to my liking since it allows me to take control over my hand writing. As far as dimensions are concerned the Ezuthani is 205 mm in length with the cap on, 197 mm when uncapped, thereby putting the cap length of the cap at 8 mm.

A view of the Gama Ezuthani with the cap seperated.

writing sample (apology for the lack of sharpness in the image).

 

Overall I am delighted to have the Gama Ezuthani in my collection which as per my reckoning should be be a sought after item for any pen collector for its archaic design, beautiful appearance and lastly its performance.

 

Hope you liked the post. Comments are welcome.

 

Best regards

 

Somnath.

[OCArt]

Thank you for the review, I loved seeing the photos of the shop.

[hari317]

Thanks for the review. Always nice to hear about Mr. Pratap and that he continues to do well.

 

The Gem & Co store ( pic courtesy Amitava Gupta).

 

 

 

The above picture is quite interesting. It is of another stationery shop also called Gem and Co located at Gem Corner at T Nagar. T Nagar is quite far away from the Gem and Co that Pratap operates and a glimpse of which can be seen in the group pic with the pen model hanging above.

 

Best

Edited October 20, 2017 by hari317

[farazqamar]

looks like the Franklin-Christoph Model 66 stabilis.

[SOMNATH]

Thanks for the review. Always nice to hear about Mr. Pratap and that he continues to do well.

 

Yes Hari you are right. The shop in the picture is not the Gem & Co that I talked about. I checked this with my brother and he tells me that this shop probably belongs to his brother.

Sir thank you for correcting me.

 

The above picture is quite interesting. It is of another stationery shop also called Gem and Co located at Gem Corner at T Nagar. T Nagar is quite far away from the Gem and Co that Pratap operates and a glimpse of which can be seen in the group pic with the pen model hanging above.

 

Best

[SOMNATH]

Yes Hari you are right. This is not the pic of Gem & & Co that I talked about in the review. I checked this with my brother and he tells me that this is a shop probably owned by his brother.

Sir thank you for correcting me.

Regards

[inner000light]

thanks for the review! also interesting to see where the pens came from.

[dinuraj]

Awesome pen. I am going to get in contact with him to get one for myself ..

[Sagarb]

Nice review Somnath,t thoroughly enjoyed it..And nice handwriting.