6 AM Pacific

The Perfect Notebook

One of the few old world habits that I stubbornly stick with is writing with a fountain pen. I don’t write nearly as much as I type, but when I do, l like the feel of a good ink nib against paper. It helps me think better, or so it seems.

When writing with a fountain pen, the kind of paper you write on is very important. It has to be of a certain quality, otherwise the nib snags or the ink blots. I don’t believe you are supposed to write on both sides of the paper, but I do. So for me, the thickness and quality of the paper is even more important.

I do most of my writing when I am traveling - in meetings, on planes, on phone calls - whenever it is inconvenient to fire up the old laptop. So I need a light notebook.

Unfortunately, you don’t get light notebooks with high quality paper. I have tried Moleskine. Very high quality paper. Looks good. But with 192 pages and a hard bound cover, it adds many ounces to my already heavy laptop bag.

Last week I was in Mumbai. Before lunch with a friend we had some time and stepped into Rhythm House, a favourite haunt of ours when my wife and I lived in the city. I saw some notebooks on display. Most of them were thick with colored paper which weren’t interesting to me.

Then I saw this slim notebook, just 80 pages, with a cover that was made of craft paper. Good quality Very simply designed but with just a few stylistic touches to make it stand out. The price at Rs. 80 is a steal compared to the Moleskine prices.

I bought a notebook. The product is from Rubberband Products. There is a design studio, Ajay Shah Design Studio, behind it. Goes to show that good design can breath life into every day products that are almost commodities.

Now I’m in Chennai. I wish they had an outlet here. I would have stocked up before I left for the US.