Hyderabad adventure

[Prof Drew]

Thank you again @lascosas I will look forward to your impression of the pens someday after you catch up sleep and have time to ink up all these wonders. Thank you again for sharing.

 

Please forgive the silly question, but I wondered how much (INR OK) roughly it cost for the 45 min ride. I was trying to imagine how much a trip would cost and had seen that hotels seem quite reasonable. I've traveled in Japan, PRC, ROC, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, but never on the Subcontinent. I used to dream of going and seeing museums, pen shopping, and getting a tasty Chicken Tikka Masala until I learned that was a foreign invention. Still like my Palak Paneer, Curries and Masala Chai.

[lascosas]

I'm not so sure they are the next generation.  At the moment they are the English speakers with some computer savy.

[tommym]

8 minutes ago, lascosas said:

I'm not so sure they are the next generation.  At the moment they are the English speakers with some computer savy.

 

 

That's kind of the vibe that I was getting even before your trip. It seems in many of these smaller family companies (worldwide), the younger generations are okay with being the business rep for the company, but rather not work down in the trenches with Pops and Grandpa.

 

Tommy

[lascosas]

You hire the driver for the entire time or you aren't going to have a way back. 

[Prof Drew]

22 minutes ago, lascosas said:

You hire the driver for the entire time or you aren't going to have a way back.  

 

Thank you for explaining. I am used to getting around in Japan and other places, but obviously had no idea of such basics of getting around in India. In Malaysia and Singapore I enjoyed a local uber-type app, and was happy rides were so affordable. Traffic in India seems a bit overwhelming to me. 

 

I suppose these experiences will make your pen acquisitions even more precious since you went in person and met the generation of the pen crafting talent and the young talent who are mastering the online environment. Treasure them.

[lascosas]

We leave Hyderabad in the morning and return on the 23rd.  I have placed an order with Woodex and Deccan and will pick those up then.  Today I photographed all the pens, but don't know when I will have time to post them and a narrative.  I happened to have a Jinhao 9019 and a Sailor Realo with me and used them as size comparisons in the photos.  Most of the PLP & Deccan pens are at least as large as the Jinhao, and the Woodex are larger than the Realo, with some quite bigger.

[metalhead]

-deleted-

[lascosas]

I have a favor to ask.  Can we keep this to fountain pens?  I'm working hard to report my trip, and I don't want it to turn into a traffic description.

[Prof Drew]

7 hours ago, lascosas said:

I have a favor to ask.  Can we keep this to fountain pens?  I'm working hard to report my trip, and I don't want it to turn into a traffic description.

My apologies for broadening the topic to traffic. I am looking forward to your report.

Pleasant travels.

[mhguda]

Sorry to butt in...

But you might want to ask in the pen shops maybe about fountainpen friendly paper. I've had some inexpensive notebooks, made in India, that were surprisingly good.

[lascosas]

Thank you for your recommendation of looking for paper.  Unfortunately, my spouse is demanding half of the luggage space, so I am limiting myself to pens.

 

I have become an ebonite pen fanatic, determined to convert locals to the cause.  So far I have two half interested.  one of the apprentices at the Taj, and the guy at airport security when my bag full of 75 (!!!) ebonite pens drew attention.  I quickly convinced them that they were harmless pens, but one of them actually found a piece of paper and wrote with it until his supervisor barked at him for holding up the line.  I pointed to his plastic ball point.  "Boring."  Then to the FP, beautiful and made in Hyderabad!   He agreed and thanked me for telling him about something in his city that was so beautiful and he didn't know about.  Unfortunately both semi-converts went so far as to ask the price, then cringed when I said 1,600 rupees.  But I am planting seeds.

[mhguda]

Keep up the good work.

And, maybe one small notebook won't eat too much into your share of the luggage... and there's always Indiapost. They do ship to exotic places... This was what my husband and I used to do before Kindle - in New York, go bookshopping, then before going home with the loot, mail it to ourselves... We had to wait to get it, but it doubled the fun, actually.

[lascosas]

PLP Pens

This was the highlight of my pen adventure, because I went to the workshop, and spent three hours with the owner/pen maker Poona Laxmipathi and his son Satish.  Satish speaks excellent English, and it was thus much easier to ask questions than with the other pens that I purchased.  But every single person I met with was gracious, very willing to spend time with me and answer all of my questions. 

 

Here is a picture of the building where the pens are made.  On the ground level is a workshop and office.  Poona is the sole penmaker for PLP Pens, which stands for Poona Laxmi Pathi.  The family lives above the workshop.  That is Satish.  He runs the website and helps out his dad.

[lascosas]

A couple of weeks before I arrived I placed an order for 9 pens from the 3 models thay had available in ebonite: 1 scenic, 3 solid ebonite, 5 jumbo.  I was able to buy examples of new models when I arrived.  Except for the scenic, the below are all new models that will soon be added to the website.  The prices are eyedropper/converter.  Some of these are uncapped minus nib & feed.  The available nibs are Ambitious and Kanwrite.

[lascosas]

I am a camera dummy, so sorry that the above is upside down. 

As you enter the area where the car is parked, around to the side, are the stored rods

 

[lascosas]

And inside the shop are more rods, both ebonite and acrylic.  I am so in love with ebonite that I sometimes forget that these pen manufacturers also make their acrylic pens from rods.

[lascosas]

And the next photos are of the machines used to make the pens, and a smiling pen maker with a couple of the pens I bought.

 

Can someone help me out here.  How do I make these right side up.  The photos when downloaded on my computer are right side up, but when I add them here, they end up upside down, and if I turn them around on my computer and save them and then add them, same problem!  So at the moment you'll just need to turn your device around.

 

UPDATE:  Thank you Tommyn & Mercyn for your photo changing advice.  I tried it several times with no luck, and when I removed and replaced the photos, then cancelled the edit because they were still wrong, FPN would no longer allow me to remove the old photos.  So all I could do was add Tommyn's corrected photos that he sent me to the end.

 

[lascosas]

Here is the box that the pen comes in if you purchase it online.  The actual color is a rich, deep burgundy, a much nicer box than my photo shows. 

[lascosas]

These are the jumbos, and to give you an idea of size I included a Jinhao 9019 (it has the trim at the end of the cap), a big fat pen...but my jumbos are bigger, and much much prettier...and ebonite!

[lascosas]

Here is the model solid ebonite along with a jumbo for size comparison.  I unfortunately ran out of time before the nibs could be placed in the pens.  I've added a couple but for this example, it is still just the feed.  When you buy a pen from PLP I assume you can get it with a Kanwrite, but I bought all of mine with Ambitious nibs, and these are 10-12 year old Ambitious nibs, not the new and inferior ones.  Quite bouncy.  So I left with a baggies of Ambitious nibs to carefully add to my wonderful PLP pens.