It was during the first COVID-19 lockdown that Sulekha retrieved itself from the pages of history to resume production, and on Monday, exactly four years later, the 90-year-old brand of fountain pen ink has already regained some of its past glory. So much so that during a pen show in Chennai earlier this month, this Kolkata-based company ran out of stock. This is apart from a strong presence on social media and a physical presence in important city events, including book fairs.
“In terms of brand recall, it would not be an exaggeration to claim that Sulekha is undisputedly top of the mind, as I was pleasantly surprised to note at the Chennai pen show. So overwhelming was the response that we ran out of stock in certain categories midway of the three-day event,” Kaushik Maitra, managing director of Sulekha Works Limited, told The Hindu.
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“Sulekha has always enjoyed a special place in the hearts of the discerning. Even if one were to discount the brand’s close association with the freedom struggle, its popularity is still phenomenal as it is one of the few home-grown brands from our childhood that is still fighting it out,” Mr. Maitra said.
Sulekha was started in 1934 by two brothers, Sankaracharya and Nanigopal Maitra, after Mahatma Gandhi gave the call for swadeshi stationery. They first set up a small factory in Rajshahi (now in Bangladesh) and in 1939, shifted to the then Calcutta, where business soared. During the 1960s and 1970s, the brand remained a household name, with the company manufacturing over one crore 60 ml bottles of ink annually in its heyday.
Then, in 1988, business had to shut down, not so much because there was a decline in the use of fountain pens but because of aggressive trade unionism that also hit several other establishments in Bengal. Sulekha shifted to homecare and hygiene care products, and later also began to take up solar projects.
It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that the company plucked its ink chapter from the pages of history to write a new script. “We resumed the production of ink on a commercial level during the first phase of the COVID induced lockdown. That was the time when people, locked out as they were, were forced to seriously contemplate the various reasons that we were long pointing out for the use of the fountain pen,” Mr. Maitra said.
He explained why he was a champion of the fountain pen. “Apart from being one of the most sustainable writing options, it is a potent tool against psychosomatic issues plaguing the young and in bringing them out from a digitally overwhelmed lifestyle. It also improves handwriting, and helps achieve a better mind-body coordination, and guards against finger arthritis,” he said.
While revenue is not something to write home about, recognition and respect are returning. “Financially, Sulekha today is not even a fraction of what it was during its halcyon days just before unfortunate socio-political issues had forced us to down shutters. But that is not something that overtly bothers us. Sulekha is a responsible corporate citizen and it is not financial goals alone that drive us,” Mr. Maitra said.
Last week, the company was to organise a major event at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture — which would have included the showcasing of paintings done with Sulekha’s ink; live demonstration of handwriting, lettering, calligraphy and doodling; and interactions with Sulekha chemists — but it had to be postponed due to the death of the head of the Mission.
Sulekha, at the moment, has 35 shades of ink, marketed under different series, most of them either celebrating India and its freedom, and famous Kolkatans, including Jamini Roy and Satyajit Ray. “We are more interested in popularising the use of the fountain pen than selling inks alone. That is one big way of curbing plastic pollution. That is why we do not use plastic bottles. We are a company with zero-carbon footprint, meeting our entire energy requirement by generating solar power in our factory,” Mr. Maitra said.
