New York-based novelist Amitav Ghosh recently ordered a fountain pen from an artisanal maker in India. "The last time I looked at his online list, it said my order would be ready in 95 weeks," the ...

Here, Manoj Deshmukh, working with a small lathe machine in a small apartment, produces high quality handmade fountain pens that are sold all over the world. He has no employees. It takes anything ...