A PENCHANT FOR PENS

This is a story that takes us a few decades back, familiarises with the history, the makers and making of Ranga Pens one that made rounds at the Chennai Pen Show

- SONU M KOTHARI

EARLY this month, the spotlight was on Fika, Adyar. Pen lovers from the city made a beeline to the Chennai Pen Show to take a glimpse at some unique products and delve into the stories of their making. One stall, of a homegrown brand, had people's attention. "Our counter saw a footfall of 16,000 to 20,000 individuals just on the third day," shares an elated MP Kandan.

The stall was that of Ranga Pens'. And Kandan, its secondgeneration owner.

Kandan's father MS Pandurangan was working in a pen-manufacturing company in Thiruvallur in the mid-1950s.

Thiruvallur was a hub for cottage industries then. Pen manufacturing was the mainstay. This was a time when Sriperumbadur was not an industrial hub yet. People depended on local town jobs to eke out a living.

"It took him only a year, not only to learn, but master the skill of pen making." shares Kandan. In the dim glow of a bustling workshop, the rhythmic clatter of a foot pedal-powered lathe machine filled the air. Pandurangan's foot set the shaft and belt in motion, shaping pen barrels with precision - each corner exuding perfection.

This routine of an employee gradually shifted to the busy schedule of a factory owner. Kandan says, "He established his own feeder company, as a small cottage industry, at the age of 17-18. A feeder company is where the parts of the nib are manufactured." Formed in 1970, Ranga Pens then widened its scope and started producing pens because "it was a time when people used and collected antique pens, especially the fountain pens," points out Kandan.