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Finding Arun Joshi’s novels...
Some months back Vinod started writing posts about his search for Arun Joshi’s novels...and it was a pretty intense search...he seemed to be obsessed with buying and reading all novels by Arun...
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Second reluctant visit to Best Books sale...and found some books...
Usually, I visit the Best Books sale at least two times every time they put up a sale at YMCA, but after the disappointing first visit this time around, and the sheer lazy attitude of the people in...
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The Deccan Red Sanders – a new model in the making
When Zubair (@ Deccan Pen Stores, Secunderabad) showed me this pen four days back, I thought this was the manufacturer’s sample piece of an old model. I was struck by the sheer beauty of this pen and...
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Month end twin posts - 1. Meeting Mr Lakshmana Rao of Guider Pens again…after...
This is the third part of my narration of my meeting with Mr Lakshmana Rao and the new pens that he had made…I posted the first two ones almost immediately, and wanted to give some gap before I posted...
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Month end twin posts - 2. Meeting Mr Lakshmana Rao of Guider Pens again…after...
Continuing with Mr Lakshmana Rao’s experiments in acrylic…the ones being shown here are the standard size which is called Raja in local FP parlance (I heard the name Raja being used to describe the...
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Abids on 29th – Part 1 – two books
I think it was the 29th of September 2013…Sunday…Shuba was in Hyderabad with Teju…Shuba is my sister-in-law and a famous person in Coimbatore…she was earlier a famous person in Chennai…Chennai’s loss...
View ArticleAbids on 29th – Part 2 – pens, watches, and ritual…conversation over Irani...
Vinod said he’d be at their regular Irani haunt and I went there… Umashankar was also there with another friend…and over sips of Irani chai, there took place a very interesting conversation…I was...
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Small Fountain Pens from Andhra Pradesh - The Deccan Lilliput
There is something about making small fountain pens that catches the fancy of pen makers from Andhra Pradesh…Ratnamson has SS in ebonite, Guider has Kid in acrylic, and both these penmakers have made...
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GAMA Supreme Jumbo - A duofold-y ebonite fountain pen from Gem & Co., Chennai
My good friend Hari sent me pictures of this pen some weeks back…I saw the pictures and went ‘wow’… this pen had that kind of impact on me…the thick flat ends design is something that I can’t resist...
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On the Big Red trail ... Beginning ...
When I re-started my encounter with fountain pens, this time more seriously, both as a collector and user, the Montblanc 149 was my grail pen … I checked out the pen at the Montblanc showroom in...
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On the Big Red trail...them giving me company till the Big Red Day...
It is a childhood thing I think…all such desires go back to one’s childhood…ask Freud…or is it Jung? I vaguely remember using a big orangeish fountain pen when I was in school in Thiruvananthapuram…it...
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The Deccan Advocate - Recent Avatar
I was actually quite skeptical when I came to know that Advocate, the iconic FP from Deccan Pens, Hyderabad, was getting a makeover... and when I actually saw the Advocate in its new avatar, I felt the...
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The Deccan Advocate - Transitions - from 2007 to 2014
Hari’s post on Fountain Pen Network on the evolution of the Deccan Advocate in the last decade inspired me to put together this post … a sort of companion post … I bought my first Advocate in December...
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Wednesday Double Post - A Mixed Haul at Abids on Sunday & Meeting with...
After around four weeks of deciding and dropping, this Sunday (20 April 2014) I finally managed to get to Abids for the mid-morning book hunt... did I have an idea what to look for? Or was it going to...
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Wednesday Double Post - A Mixed Haul at Abids on Sunday & Meeting with...
I didn’t find any Simon Brett so far and went to the next stall…hoping…I found a Harlan Coben novel, from the Myron Bolitar Series…One False Move…I have been looking for novels from this series for...
View ArticleI have to tell you this … sense of an ending or non?
Some of you might know that I teach English at an engineering college here in Hyderabad … it is a difficult task … for many reasons … it is a low priority subject for the majority of students who just...
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Surprise Friday Book Bonanza … Thanks to Vinod ...
After a long long time Shruti had prepared her family’s patented aachar … this time in really large quantities … I had invited Vinod home for lunch sometime in April 2008 and this pickle was then made...
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Minor siblings of the Deccan Advocate...
I should have written about these two Deccan models long back … I think it was nearly four years ago, or maybe five years ago, that I found these two models at Deccan…I had gone there on one of those...
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Chitra Viraraghavan’s ‘The Americans’ – An account of the book launch at...
When Shruti and I met Vinod at CCD for chai and chat, Vinod asked us if we would be free on 02 May 2014, to attend a book launch. He informed us that the author is known to him and that he’d forward...
View ArticleChitra Viraraghavan’s ‘The Americans’ – Book Launch at Landmark, Hyderabad...
There was a nice moist-eye moment during the conversation when Chitra Viraraghavan’s own hero flashed into the limelight to soothe the parched throat of his damsel in cough-stress … caught in the...
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