Fountain of love: Ink still flows for Raiganj teacher!
RAIGANJ: In the era of keyboard and touchpad, his love for nibs reigns supreme. An ardent collector of about 100 fountain pens, Kaustav Paul— a school teacher from Raiganj—takes pride in using the ‘ink’ for his day-to-day writing affairs. No matter what technology has to offer, he is a strict loyalist to the ink and nibs.
Blame it on his fondness; he has curated the elaborate and fancy collection painstakingly over the years. His collection of pens comprises extremely rare pieces.
He also boasts of owning a few that have been long discontinued in use. Some of the pens are historically significant as well.
Kaustav, a resident of Birnagar area in Raiganj, stated: “I have about 100 types of fountain pens in my collection. They are made by companies like Parker, Sailor, Pilot, Waterman, Platinum, Pelican, Platignam, Screes, Wingsang, Hero, Lamy, Lotus,
Airmail and Miawardi.”
He not only collects pens but also traces the historical importance of some of the vintage ones. According to him, ‘Parker 51’ model pen is the world’s most successful fountain pen. The Vietnam War Peace Treaty was signed with a ‘Parker 75’.
“Once, I visited Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s museum in Cuttack and came to know that the leader used a ‘platignum’ pen. Similarly, I came to know that Rabindranath Tagore used to write with ‘Eversurp’ company pens. All these types of pens are in my collection,” he added.
But, what motivated him to become a collector of fountain pens? To this, the teacher replies: “I turn nostalgic at the sight of fountain pens. I have perhaps inherited the passion from my father Arun Kumar Paul, who has also passed down some of the pens to me.”
His love for fountain pens has no full stops. Thus, he desires to own a few more rare and luxuriant pieces like the Montblanc, Moonwalk and Meisterstuck in the future. These pens will cost lakhs of rupees.
“Among various types of fountain pens Gravity, Capillarity, Air Pressure and Iridium Tip are those which attract writers more. A good fountain pen adapts the frequency of the user’s hand and it makes the device very personal. In this age of digital technology, a major chunk of writers prefer fountain pens as it makes the writing process easier and produces beautiful handwriting,” he added.
