Apart from Chinese items, Indian brands have introduced innovative, quirky and non-toxic products to engage students and professionals alike. Shrabasti Mallik checks out the stationery fair
Six-year-old Anaya was all smiles and giggles as she twirled a fairy princess pencil, with a heart shaped crown and multi-coloured tassels. But hell broke loose when her mother refused to buy it for her. We found out that she had strong reasons to refuse. “It is made in China and is pretty toxic. The plastic on top is brittle and breaks easily so there is always a possibility of her choking on it,” said she pointing out that a similar accident had happened before.
And Anaya was not the only one. We came across crying kids, bawling kids and kids who hung on to their parents like baby koala bears trying to convince them to buy a Ben 10 pen or a sports car pencil box or a Pooh shaped sharpener at the 12th Stationary Fair, a part of the ongoing Delhi Book Fair at Pragati Maidan.
Remember those days when our pride and joy used to be that bright yellow pencil with a white eraser on top or that Camlin geometry boxIJ We pretended to be the ‘protector of the universe’ with our He-Man themed pencil boxes and believed that owning a set of Nataraj pencil, eraser and sharpener would actually get us good grades. But sadly, those simple joys of life have faded away.
More than the joy of learning, stationary products have become somewhat of a style statement. Chinese products have been there in the market for quite some time but the penetration has increased manifold. We found kids and parents alike pouring over a small store selling all-Chinese products. “This is so cool. I can’t wait to show it to my friends,” eight-year-old Puneet Thakur squealed, holding a pen that pretty much looked suitable for a giant (a big friendly one, at that). Saif Khan, partner of Pen4U candidly confessed that none of the gazillion products at the stall are manufactured in India.
“They are all imported from China,” he said. He held up what looked like a bullet train and just when we thought it as a toy he pulled it apart to reveal a pen. “It is not that India has less creativity, it is just that the cost of production in the country is very high. In China it is less. Even when you add the cost of importing, it is very less. And not just stationary, every second product in India is from China,” he explained and showed us the back cover of his iPhone pointing out to the little detail at the bottom ‘Assembled in China.’
A few stalls north and we found a little boy scribbling on a piece of paper and then took a whiff of it as his mother stood by, watching. We were curious to learn why he chose to smell his doodle and the reason was quite fascinating. Stic, known in the Indian stationary world as a popular colouring brand, has come up with a new range of flavoured sketch pens. Brown gives chocolate flavour, orange smells like orange, yellow smells like banana and the like. “It has only been a few days since we have launched this in packs of six and 12, and kids are enjoying the fruity flavours,” said Neeraj Tayal, sales officer, Stic, Delhi.
We also found an equally interesting colouring concept in Doms’ aqua colour pencils. National sales manager Navneet Sharma explained to us that the wooden pencils can be used to colour but when you dip a thin paint brush in water and brush over it, the colour pigments dissolve, giving the effect of watercolour paint. “These are non-toxic and have been approved by the European standards. The little ‘CE’ mark that you find in all non-toxic products stand for Complied with European standards. These products are manufactured in our factory in Gujarat,” he said.
If pencils, pens and colours had undergone such evolution, how could notebooks, copies and spiral books be far behindIJ There was a time when the crackling of a new notebook made us want to write in the best handwriting and carefully label it with our class, section, roll numbers and subjects. That innocent joy still remains but the only thing that has changed are the kind of copies. Spiral notebooks and separate subject notebooks are gradually taking over the hard bound or paperback covered copies.
Atul Kapoor, business manager of Taj Stationeries told us that education is no longer just long hours of making notes and remembering facts. “They have become lifestyle products. When you incorporate good visuals on the front and back cover it looks appealing. The look and feel of a product have now started to matter and spiral bound books are more in demand.” We noticed that most of Taj stationeries were spiral bound books and paper back coped with fascinating visuals like a football or a photo of the Colloseum.
Next door Evergreen Publication painted a different picture. We discovered their old and signature hard bound copies with very quirky covers and quotes. Rahul Sharma, marketing representative said, “We do not compromise with the quality of paper, but we do keep up with the changing times. That is why we innovate on the covers to make it attractive.”
These were just few of the trends that we spotted but there are plenty more to explore, discover and see at the stationary fair which wraps up on September 6.
photos Pankaj Kumar