Kashi's fountain pens

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was recently in Varanasi, where he inaugurated the Kashi Vishwanath Dham corridor.

- BIBEK DEBROY

Anyone who has visited Varanasi lately will know how the city has been transformed. Those who have not visited should have some idea from the events on December 13. A few days before the PM’s visit, I visited Varanasi.

I will not talk about Kashi Vishwanath Dham corridor or Kashi’s transformation. Others have done that. Instead, this is about fountain pens. Contrary to the impression, the first fountain pen made in India was not produced by Ratnam in Rajahmundry in 1935. In 1911, a remarkable gentleman authored a book titled Romance of Pen Industries. This gentleman was Dr Radhika Nath Saha, a doctor, as a member of college of physicians and surgeons (MCPS). But he was also an inventor. Among other things, he invented a type of fountain pen, got patents in diverse countries and set up the Luxmy Stylo Pen Works in Varanasi in 1907. Luxmy pens were the first fountain and stylo (an ancestor of ball-point) pens produced in India.