19 June 2015

An interesting new friend from Verona

My family and friends were all roaming around Verona – ostensibly visiting Juliet’s house and Arena and all that – as I was going from street to street talking to people and whenever possible, downing another glass of Barbera d’Asti. Then a shop caught my attention – it was a fountain pen shop. A very small one at that.

Anyways, I went inside and looked at the pens on display. None of them caught my fancy but I did strike up a conversation with the elderly gentleman sitting there. I asked him if he had any true original Italian fountain pen in a fine tip. I also showed him a picture of the collection I have. It was immediately evident that he did not come across fountain pen dieahards too often.

Before I knew anything, he locked up his shop and took me for a walk to another place – and there was a much bigger fountain pen shop there. He introduced the lady inside as his wife and introduced me to her as a “collector” (first time ever I felt vaguely cool about myself). They sat me down and told me the story of his family over a cup of capuccino.

I got to know how Rudi’s – that was his name – father had applied for a license to open a fountain pen shop in 1939 in Verona. Italy, under Mussolini, was in the middle of the World War that time and it took him a year to get license to open a shop. And he dedicated his rest of his life to making pens and selling them. His son and daughter in law later expanded on that business. They do not make any pens now but sell high end fountain pens. manellapens.it is their website.

He then handed me a book on history of fountain pens from Italy and refused to accept money for that. I did land up adding two more to my collection – an original Delta (which is I think the only real Italian fountain pen company left – it is like the Alfa Romeo in cars) and a MonteVerde (which started in Italy but is now produced in USA also).

Finally, I took a picture of them and promised to stay in touch!!!

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Category: Fountain Pens, Vacations | 6 Comments on An interesting new friend from Verona
19 April 2015

“None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try”

… thus said Mark Twain.

Of the various things that have made Sharmila call me “quirky”, my fascination towards fountain pens has to be one of the top ones. Even today, I write with fountain pens almost always – including office matters. Two fountain pens in my office bag are my constant companions (because I often have ink accidents – especially due to low pressure in flights). And a special pad that does not bleed or blot (it is very difficult to find fountain-pen-friendly pads in this country).

Over the years, I also have collected fountain pens. One of the best times of the year for me – and perhaps the only personal “retail therapy” time – is when the Pen Show comes to Atlanta!! (Yes, there is such a thing – about five thousand pens are on display and about two hundred “quirky” pen collectors gather to buy and sell pens, re-tune the nibs or otherwise repair their pens).

And today I added a few more to my collection. This is the full collection – each one of these is a fountain pen with a fine tip nib. Some are made from tree wood, some from rocks, some from rare stones and some from bird feathers!!

Ah! till next April again!!!!

Fountain Pens

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11 December 2013

An inspiring meeting!

Had a brilliant time over a drink with Milind last evening after a full day’s worth of work. I had the opportunity to work together with him – nearly ten years younger to me – in i2 many many moons ago. There were some 10,000 employees that had worked at some point of time in i2. By my experience – and feedback from those thousands of i2ers who went and joined a lot of other companies – it certainly was an exceptional place in terms of an unbelievable number of really really smart people coming together under one tent with an incredible “whatever it takes” attitude.

Most all of them have moved on to other companies following great careers. However, I have always wondered whether we created enough entrepreneurs who would go on to start their own companies. For such an entrepreneurial environment, it strikes me as though we might not have had our fair share.

Milind is certainly the most successful entrepreneur I know of from i2.

Having created a company which, in its short history of seven years (last five have generated revenue) has reached an annual revenue generation of nearly $200M, he probably produces more revenue than all entrepreneurs from i2 put together.

What a great success story at such an early age.

We talked a lot about the challenges of growing and sustaining a company. The challenges of building coherent teams and a deliberate culture. Great discussions. Very inspiring.

Hope to see many more young men and women from my past create value in this world like Milind has.

Then he floored me with something.
I did not know this but early in his career, apparently he worked for a Swiss gentleman named Mr. Hertig who had moved to Mumbai and had created an eponymous company to make fine writing instruments and sell there. Milind has a few fountain pens saved from those days.
He had read about my fascination for fountain pens in a previous post and guess what? Since that day, he had saved a pen set for me waiting to meet me some day. That day happened yesterday!

Here’s to many more successes to you, Milind. So much so, that none of my fountain pens can ever finish writing about them!!!

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Category: Fountain Pens, Intersection Points | 8 Comments on An inspiring meeting!
12 April 2013

Fountain Pens!

When asked to describe me in one word, my wife once had said “Quirky”. If you know me, you know that is as close a word as it gets to describe me as any. If you know me even more, you probably also know that one of my quirks is that I do not use any pen other than fountain pens. (I have modest collection of them too).
Today, I finally realized how my wife feels in those clothes and dress stores she seems to go to all the time 🙂 Went to the Atlanta Pen Show that opened today. I am easily distracted by a nice fountain pen (especially with fine nibs). They had hundreds and hundreds of them!! Some were of unbelievable vintage. And I met a couple of guys who hand made some of those pens. I was like a kid in a candy store. Really really did not want to come back.
Ah! well!!!

Category: Fountain Pens | 5 Comments on Fountain Pens!