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The things people keep
Name Madhusudhan Bhandarkar
Collection
Bank managers can be excused for their scrawl. Often having to clear a pile of requisition letters with hurriedly written notes, they obviously can’t write like calligraphers. As a bank manager who used calligraphy for official correspondence,
Madhusudhan Bhandarkar is probably an exception! During his tenure as senior branch manager, Syndicate Bank, Army Headquarters (Q Block), Delhi, Bhandarkar was popular partly because of the beautiful strokes in his handwriting. He had his first brush with calligraphy while working at the bank’s Hyderabad branch. “When a customer presented a requisition letter, I was stunned by the beauty of his handwriting.” This was over 15 years ago. Since then, Bhandarkar has been a student of calligraphy. And, regularly buying calligraphy pens.
“For practising this art, a set of calligraphy pens with varying stroke widths will do. As I am fascinated with these pens and like to experiment, I keep buying more of them.” His collection, now numbering over 50, would be much larger if he had not been in the habit of gifting a calligraphy pen to anyone showing interest in the art.
Calligraphy pens are not easy to get. But not for Madhusudhan. Thanks to his daughter, who lives in Finland and often travels around Europe, he manages to get the best of them. He shows off a set with five nibs of varying width strokes (0.85mm, 1.35mm, 1.6mm, 2.8mm, 3.2mm).
When the nib is covered, a calligraphy pen looks like any regular pen. The nib makes all the difference — in a calligraphy pen, it is chiselled. Markers meant for calligraphy are called ‘chiselmarkers’ — Madhusudhan has over a dozen of them. “Markers have round tips, and chiselmarkers chiselled tips. If a beginner can’t get hold of a calligraphy pen, he need not waste time. He can just take a blade and slightly nip off a marker’s tip.”
Calligraphy pens are costlier than regular ones; and the branded ones cost much more. Madhusudhan has Pik, Parker and Pilot in his pile. A parker set with three nibs he bought three years ago cost him Rs. 425. A few pens in the collection are antiques. One of them is a calligraphic quill. “There are various calligraphic styles. But a calligrapher has to use them, but ultimately create his own styles.”
PRINCE FREDERICK
(freddie@thehindu.co.in )
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