7th Inked Happiness Lifetime Achievement Award conferred upon Nikil Ranjan

The 7th Inked Happiness Lifetime Achievement Award was conferred upon Nikil Ranjan on August 1st, 2025, at the Eastern Metropolitan Club, Kolkata, in a solemn ceremony. The Award recognizes lives dedicated to the cause of fountain pens and inks, and has in the past been won by the Late Dr Bibek Debroy, Prof. K C Janardhan, Prof Y Pitkar, Dr Sovon Roy,, and Sudhir Kalyanikar, among others.

The award investiture ceremony was conducted by senior journalist and noted fountain pen aficionado Suparna Pathak. He set the tone of the evening by pointing out how precious little is done by the manufacturers to popularise the cult of fountain pens and inks, appreciating the efforts of Inked Happiness in the same breath.

Prof Yashwant Pitkar, fondly monikered “the travelling inkpot” and a doyen of the pen and ink fraternity, was the guest of honour. In his speech, Prof Pitkar talked about the emerging trends and stressed his happiness at the growing popularity of fountain pens, especially among the young. He also acknowledged the work being done by evangelists like Chawm Ganguly for spreading awareness about handwriting in general and the use of fountain pens in particular which continues to provide one of the most sustainable writing options. Prof Pitkar also expressed his heartfelt happiness and pride as an Indian on the acquisition of Sheaffer by William Penn, which was being celebrated by the Inked Happiness Award.

The award was formally handed over by Chawm Ganguly, the person behind Inked Happiness to Nikhil Ranjan, who founded William Penn, and as Chawm Ganguly put it “has done more to bring the art of writing and popularize the use of fountain pens and inks than many and has put India on the global map by acquiring the marquee brand Sheaffer.” Sheaffer it will not be out of context to mention here, was founded by Walter A. Sheaffer in Fort Madison, Iowa, USA, and incorporated in 1913 to exploit his invention of a lever-filling fountain pen. For more than a hundred years since then, it has been the frontrunner in the world of writing instruments and is one of the most iconic pen brands of all time.)

In his acceptance speech, Nikhil Ranjan talked at length about the journey of William Penn, how from being simple stationers, they have worked their way painstakingly up to the commanding heights, whose crowning glory was the acquisition of the globally revered Sheaffer. He also shared with the audience the plans that Sheaffer wants to put in place going forward. He ended his speech by thanking Inked Happiness for choosing him for the Lifetime Achievement Award, acknowledging the selfless service it is providing to the industry by being its vanguard, a mouthpiece.

The Award, as Kaushik Maitra, the Managing Director of Sulekha pointed out in his wrapping-up speech, was constituted to celebrate the birthday of Inked Happiness, a blog and YouTube handle dedicated to the cause of handwriting and writing instruments. Inked Happiness is a labour of love of collector, raconteur, and fountain pen & ink evangelist Suvobrata (Chawm) Ganguly. He also talked at length as to how the Swadeshi ink maker Sulekha is closely associated with the program, as is Kalam Club, a not-for-profit organization working at the grassroots with children, reintroducing them to the art of handwriting and the use of fountain pens and inks.

The program was attended by several respected members from the community of fountain pen users, connoisseurs all.