Pens

Uni-Ball UB157 (Fine), 0.7mm, Black, $0.7
Essential. This is the perfect pen for me. Affordable, lasts long, writes very smooth, thick & water-proof. It's beautiful. It's like the perfect sword for the knight. My excalibur. Legacy. Optimus Prime.

Uni-Ball Vision Elite UB200, 0.8mm, Black, $1.5
The smoothest pen I have every used. Lightweight, premium build quality. Dark, striking ink. Peak roller ball technology, peak Uniball. Negative? Too smooth to use, lol.

Uni-Ball Vision RT, 0.5mm, Black, $2
Another banger product by Uniball. Sharp, precise and really excellent ink. Zero spread. A bit expensive given the low quantity but refillable. Very difficult to purchase (in 2022) as it seems it's out of stock in many countries. This is hands down my favorite 0.5mm roller-pen.

Uni-Ball UB150 (Micro), 0.5mm, Black, $0.7
The 0.5mm version of UB157. The same great ink, same classic design. Writes a bit rougher than UB157. Nevertheless, good pen but I prefer UB157. Use this if you have <75 GSM paper.

Pilot V7, 0.7mm, Black, $0.86
The V7 writes far smoother than the V5. The downside of this is that it spreads more than the V5. I'm not very found of the long 'hi-techpoint' nib. It feels a bit wobbly and unstable to me. It's refillable, affordable, has great ink and is widely available. If UB 157 is the knight, this sire, is the confused squire.

Uniball JetStream SNX 101, 0.7mm, Blue/Black, $0.50
Very smooth, almost slippery. Good bright ink - especially the blue. Retractable. Nice rubber grip. Lightweight. Another all rounder, banger design by Uniball.

Cello Techno-Tip, 0.6mm, Blue/Black, Rs.10, India Only.
A great ball point pen. A durable plastic body workhorse. Very cheap. Writes decent and useful to fill OMR sheets (as these don't allow roller/ink/oil based pigments). Also look at Reynolds Brite, a cheap yet ridiculously smooth ball point pen.

Uniball Signo 207 Gel, 0.7mm, Black/Blue, $1.50
Too expensive for the quality. It's a decent gel pen, very smooth, very nice ink but quite inconsistent. Ink is thick but it spreads. Very comfortable but thick. Maybe try one, you might fancy these.

↗Reynolds Trimax, 0.5mm, Blue/Black, Rs.60, India Only
My first "decent" pen. I remember being overjoyed when I purchased this. I was 11. It was ~Rs.30 ($0.37) back when it launched in 2006/7. Be careful as there are many cheap copies of it & it leaks a lot. Reynolds has a special place in every Indian heart.

Pencils & Co.

(New) Zebra DelGuard 0.7mm, ~$10
My new favorite. Lightweight and very well balanced. Springs (DelGuard) actually work well to prevent the lead from breaking. Smooth, stylish and just perfect!

Staedtler Graphite 779 0.7mm, ~$5
All rounder. I really love this pencil. Well balanced, smooth and has a great rubber grip. Excellent to take notes and underline text in books. Just go for this. In blue, please.

Sakura Foam Eraser XRFW-100, ~$1.5
Hands-down the most powerful eraser I have used. Rubs clean and perfect. Leaves almost no crumbs. Efficient and "tactical" erasing! A bit expensive but really, really worth it.

Uniball Kurutoga 0.5mm, ~$1.5
The plastic "cheaper" version of the Kurutoga. Metal is 10x more expensive. These are alright. I sure do see the "rotation" mechanism work but it's hardly useful. Still, a great pencil nonetheless.

Pentel GraphGear 1000 0.7mm, ~$14
The classic, iconic mechanical pencil. Very popular. Well built (apart from the middle connector), heavy and has an excellent, satisfying click mechanism to retract the lead. Not very good for long session due to the weight. Worth keeping in your collection though.

Uniball NanoDia Blend | Pentel Ain Stein (0.7mm, 2B) | Staedtler Art 255 (0.7mm 2B)
Use good quality leads. This is very important for pleasant, good quality writing. A good mechanical pencil needs a good lead, simple. Else you'll get a subpar experience. I like all my pencils be a bit thicker/smoother and a bit darker so I use 0.7mm, 2B leads. Feel free to experiment.

↗Solo SB001 Exam Board, Rs.245, India Only.
Really, a great exam board! If you're in India, you have to get this. Well built, lightweight, has a large clamp and looks great! Seriously, this is a fantastic product. Be sure to select "blue" and not "transparent blue"!

(New) Camlin Whiteboard Marker ~2.5mm, Rs.280 for a pack of 10.
Insanely good for the price. Great nib, great ink, nearly zero alcohol (xylene, toluene) smell. This is the one to get.

Misc.

Apple iPhone or Samsung S(current_year) (Base Numbered Models), ₹80,000
I have been using iPhones for 10 years and without any question, it's still the best mobile device you can buy. Sure, it's a walled garden but I'm fine with my phone being one, it's not my laptop - I don't want to tinker. If you want to tinker, experiment, get a Samsung Galaxy S(current_year). They are equally great. In fact, I really like the new S23, and would have bought one if I wasn't been stuck in Apple's ecosystem - namely iMessage that my family uses.

↗ Casio TQ-140 Table Clock (with Alarm) ₹595
Essential. It's a well built, quartz table clock with a loud alarm. Simple, no nonsense battery operated mechanical device. Trusty, handy and just goes with me everywhere. Cool fact: has radium hands, ;)

Casio FX-991ES ~$15
My Favorite Calculator. Our journey through my school years was memorable. Special. Slayed physics problems with this. Ravaged chemistry numericals. Conquered mathematic exercises. My partner in academic quests. Always in my heart.

Apple AirPods or Wired EarPods
Expensive, I used to be very skeptical but after using AirPods for a year now, they are seriously indispensable. Perfect for movies, songs, podcasts and just about anything. Good audio, comfortable and decent battery life. Wired EarPods have better audio quality though. I like them both.

Apple MacBook Air M1 (13") or Lenovo Thinkpads
Apple has replaced the 13" Pro with the 14" and is charging exorbitant prices for a 2023/2024 laptop with 8GB RAM. Get the baseline Air with M1 (along with Apple Care+ as it increases trade-in value when you want to get a new Mac after 3 years) that is going for a very reasonable edu. prices (+free Airpods during summer!) or spend a bit more to get a Thinkpad X1/T14s/P14, 16/X13.

Indian Prices coverted to USD. Exchange rates as on Nov, 2023.

I use 75/80 GSM A4 white paper to write, take notes or solve problems. Everything. If you sacrifice being a bit organized, it's far cheaper than notebooks. Classmate/Camlin/Faber-Castell/Navnit notebooks, A4/A5's are great. Just pick something decent (thick paper).