Mr. K. V. Ratnam was from a
family of goldsmiths who were also involved in making lithographic blocks. He
met Gandhiji during the swadeshi movement in 1921. Gandhiji advised K.V Ratnam
to make something that could be useful to the common man and that was inexpensive.K.V
Ratnam took the suggestions sincerly and
starting thinking In the lines of Gandhji
what to do, That was when they started making pens. In 1932, the first
pen was ordered by Nyapati Subba Rao Pantulu, one of the founders of The Hindu.
It was made of silver.
Ratnam then made a pen from
ebonite material and sent it as a gift to Mahatma Gandhi ,who wrote back to him
commending it (scanned copy of the original letter that is displayed in the
store),The Ratnam pens retained their status and popularity even after
independence and boasts of clients like Sir C.Y chintamani (a well known
journalist,politician was associated
with several newspapers and journals),Nyapati Subbarao pantulu(Indian politician
and social activist),Ramnath goenka(founder of the Indian Express Group,In 2000
India Today magazine named Ramnath goenka amongst their list of ‘100 People Who
Shaped India’),Dr. Rajendra Prasad(was the first President of independent
India. was the only president to serve two terms in office),Sarvepalli
Radhakrishnan( received Bharat Ratna
award in 1954 before becoming the President of India),Zakir Hussian ( recipient
of Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna),V.V Giri(was the fourth President of the
India),Jawaharlal Nehru(first Prime Minister of India),Lal Bahadur shastri( was
the Second Prime Minister of India,Indira Gandhi(was the third
Prime Minister of India,She was also named 'Woman of the Millennium'in a poll
organised by the BBC in 1999,Nikita Khrushchev (was a Russian politician and
First Secretary of the Central Committeeof the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union),and S Kasturiranga Iyengar (founder of The Hindu) among thousands of
others.
In the late 1950s, K. V.
Narasimhacharyulu, the son of Ratnam went to Germany and on his return started
a ballpoint pen manufacturing unit for the first time in India in Rajahmundry. K.V Ramana Murthy garu and his sons Gopala
Ratnam and Chandra sekhar continue to run the pen business to
this day from Rajahmundry.