Ratnam 'vacumatic'

I saw this pen in Apsara Pens, in Mumbai - fountain pen central of India - and I just had to have it. The bright, translucent purplish celluloid - there's a lavender tinge to it in natural light, which doesn't quite come out here - the classic looks of a Parker Vacumatic. It was in the case with so many other lovely vintage pens, but it far outclassed them all.

Then I opened it. Heck, what's going on? This is a Vacumatic - but it's got a Sheaffer Triumph nib! I wasn't expecting this!

Of course, being an Indian pen, it is not a vacumatic filler - no diaphragm, no button to push. Nor is there a vacuum-fil system. It's an eyedropper. Simple.

So my first breathless passion for this pen has now settled into an amused love of a beast that looks like one kind of pen, pinched the nib design off another, but is actually something else entirely. A typically Indian mix.