A selfie notebook. It’s a thing and we’re not making it up. So are fabric-covered notebooks with matching compact mirrors — narcissism is popular after all. Add to that funny quips, funky prints, interesting shapes and a touch of the digital, and that’s what the world of stationery looks like today. It’s evolved, and how! And all we had were dull exam pads made of compressed wood, notepads with the brand name in big bold letters, green-and-white erasers and pens and pencils in limited colours.
Today, stationery includes pendrives (the shape is as important as how many GBs it can hold... my personal favourite, Hello Kitty), planners, sharpeners, tapes, punchers, staplers, rubber stamps, chalk boards — all objects you’ll find in many a VI grader’s stationery bag.
Chetan Krishna Murthy who, along with his wife Hoofrish, started Gifts of Love, a stationery-led store in Delhi in 2001, says these objects have fans across all age groups, from students to grandparents.
“Stationery is no longer just a piece of paper or pen. It now defines personality. For a stationery lover, it is as valuable as his car or phone. It is part of one’s personal treasure and identity. Good stationery is appreciated by many more than it was a few years ago.”
Recipe organisers, mouse pads, cards, note pads, calendars, desk organisers, wrapping paper, magnets, desk accessories, pouches, boxes, dry erase boards and chalk boards are some of the products they design and manufacture in-house.
Sensing the demand, the couple has made the products available online, and ship them to various cities. And, in case you want to get your hands on the latest, there are conventions such as the National Stationery Show and Stationery World Expo that bring together designers and manufacturers from the world of office supplies and gadgets.
According to Chennai-based Kanika Subbiah, founder of Cherrytin.com, a gifting portal launched in 2013, stationery is the second most-preferred gift choice. Gourmet ranks first. In a month, around 15 per cent of the orders are for stationery. “Stationery was something we bet on earlier. When we started, so many naysayers believed paper is gone and nobody uses it any more. It’s not gone because you just cannot replicate the written word. Stationery is a meaningful gift, and is on the rise,” says Kanika.
Cherrytin designs notebooks, notecards, folding cards, gift tags and letter heads. Even in the age of social media and WhatsApp, handwritten notes find many takers. The portal also provides online wedding registry services.
And, guests who sign up also request for cards to be sent to them, so they can pen a personal handwritten message and hand it over to the couple while the gift is shipped to them. “It’s nice to get a handwritten note rather than a text or mail,” says Diksha Reddy, Head of Creatives at Cherrytin, who’s busy chalking out designs for yet another personalised order. Bridesmaids, golfers, Nature lovers... she’s got something specific for each of them.
Indian kitsch and Bollywood/Kollywood-inspired stationery has a big market. No wonder, notebooks with Spider-Man in a checked lungi, Akbar in an auto, ice creams and cupcake prints, planners with Rajinikanth in his various film avatars, calendars with dancing dolls, and Frozen and Santa-inspired erasers are common at numerous desks. Companies such as Type7, Monkeyji and Zahana, Urumi routinely churn out such products and websites such as propshop24.in and cooliyo.com curate an unusual mix of these. Happily Unmarried, a brand better known for its bar and home accessories, is now just as much in demand for its ‘Tumse Na Ho Payega’ (a dialogue from Gangs of Wasseypur ) notebooks. Earlier, it was The Procrastinator’s Diary, with a retold tale of the hare and tortoise, captions such as ‘procrastinators are the leaders of tomorrow’ and paper games, that received several orders. “We wanted to make everyday things fun. Why should you have a black leather diary with 2016 and a corporate’s name printed on it when you can have something more fun?” asks Nikhil Saxena, Design Head at Happily Unmarried. He says that although stationery has always been in use, it was in 2007, after laptops became common, that it gradually started becoming a collector’s item.
“With Pinterest, Instagram and social media teeming with fancy stationery, there’s an aspirational value too to own them,” adds Nikhil. It’s also interesting to note that during Deepavali, some chose to gift stationery instead of boxes filled with laddoos.
And, the trend continues for Christmas and New Year. At least you won’t pile on calories, and may instead be encouraged to jot down a few words.
Who knows, you could well be on the way to writing your first novel.
