Broken nib? No ink flow? Head to repair corner at city pen festival

Kolkata: Defunct fountain pens with broken nibs or other defects that are lying unused in city homes can now get a new lease of life at the three-day pen festival that started at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) on Friday. The third-edition of Pen Mahotsav, jointly held by the Pen Club of College Street and Kisalay Events till April 14, will have a pen repairing corner for visitors.“Many old pens inherited by people are not in working condition. Some of these pens are very expensive as well. In most cases, it is found that these old fountain pens can swing back to life if their nibs, feeds or aerometric fillers are repaired. So, this year we decided to arrange for a stall at the festival dedicated to the repairing of old pens,” said Sayak Adhaya of Pen Club, who has planned the festival along with his associates Prasenjit Guchait and Subrata Das.Sushil Majumdar, an elderly resident of Rishra, said, “I inherited a Parker 51 gold-nib pen from my father. But its vacumatic ink filling system got damaged. It is difficult to come by someone who can repair such antique pens these days. So, I plan to visit the festival and try my luck at the pen repair stall to see if it can be repaired.” Twenty-eight pen dealers, importers and manufacturers from across the country have come together at the festival where about 2,000 exquisite collections of fountain, ballpoint and roller pens have been put on display for sale at 30 stalls. “The main focus of the festival is fountain pens and ink, but we are also keeping ballpoint and roller pens to cater to all categories of pen aficionados. Importers of internal pen brands, like Pelikan, Montblanc, Lamy, Pilot, Sailor, Aurora, Cross, Leonardo, Omas, Conklin and Parker, among others, are participating in the festival. The most expensive pen on sale at the event this year is Aurora, priced at Rs 2 lakh,” said Adhaya.There are three stalls at the event exhibiting and selling vintage pens, including Waterman Safety (1905), Sheaffer Snorkel (1952), Swan Blackbird (1930), Eversharp Skyline (1940), Parker 51 (1941), Parker 61 (1956), Pilot Capless (1964), Pilot Elite (1968) and Pelikan 140 (1952). Besides, vintage Indian pens, like President, Wilson, Mahtre Writer and Plato, are also being exhibited.Rahul Kumar Gupta, a resident of CIT Road who has put up two of such vintage pen stalls, said, “The most expensive vintage pen in my collection is Mont Blanc, which is priced at Rs 1.5 lakh. There are some that cost more than Rs 50,000.”