1) Its
environment friendly: The ball pens generate a lot of plastic and metal wastes
in the form of empty refills. Moreover, each refill comes in its own plastic
packing which too adds to the already clogged drains. Unfortunately, these days
write and throw kind of single use ball pens are very popular. Compare this to
the fountain pens. No empty refills, no plastic packing of the inkpots and the
inkpot too, being made of glass and an aluminum/plastic cap is recyclable.
2) It’s
economical. Most of us use Parker Ink (Rs 1 per ml of ink), chelpark or Sulekha
(Rs 0.25 per ml of Ink). Well I have not conducted any scientific experiment on
that but can safely say that I cannot write as much if I spend the money on
refills(even with ball pen refills which are more economical than gel pen
refills)
3) You can be
sure that whatever you are writing is permanent. Permanent Inks are available
with the word permanent prefixed before the color of the ink and they are
pretty stubborn. I use Chelpark Permanent Blue-Black ink. I could not remove
its stubborn stain from a cloth even after using surf excel. The same cannot be
said about gel pens. Some of them may be permanent but I have checked one or
two on paper, they are washable.
4) Because
gentlemen use only fountain pens. Well I have read a book titled ‘How
to be a gentleman’, which I borrowed from my friend’s brother who is doing a
Hotel Management course. The author is from
5) It’s stylish!
The moment you take out your fountain pen to sign some document or write
something, the expression on the face of the stranger in front of you is worth
watching. Most of them cannot hold themselves from expressing their surprise in
words. It has been ages since I used a Fountain Pen the last time, is the most
common expression.
6) Fountain
pens look far sexier than their ball/gel counter parts. Just see the images
used to describe writing, poetry etc, you will find that the image has been
taken with the focus on a golden Nib of a fountain pen at most of the times. I
saw one ball pen named accord (manufactured in Kolkata), which has an image of
a fountain pen on its body. Even a ball pen has been made beautiful with the
image of a fountain pen.
7) Its germ
free. The rubber grips being used in almost all of the ball pens these days is
a health hazard, get it checked and you will find that it’s an adobe to many
bacteria. I haven’t seen a fountain pen with a rubber grip so far and will not
buy it even if I find one.
8) It improves
your handwriting. That’s what our parents have been telling since we were a
child. That’s the primary reason I started using it and that’s why refill pens
are banned in many schools even now including my own Creane
School , Gaya
Drawbacks
In a poor country like India
ये बच्चों के खेलने की चीज़ नहीं है, अगर लग जाए तो ख़ून निकल आता है J
Remember the holi with ink when we used to fight with our
classmates? Some dirty boy used it as a dagger too though I haven’t heard
anyone being killed with a fountain pen. You need to be careful if you don’t
want to break the nib by dropping. You also would not like to spoil your
favorite shirt while refilling.
