In 1956, Lalchand Bhatia finished first in his civil engineering class at Indore. He was due to receive his merit certificate — but it arrived one day late. His 29 batchmates had already secured places on the prestigious Narmada Dam Project. By the time his paperwork was in order, the deadline had passed.

The jobs offered to him in the aftermath paid nearly half of what the government project would have. He paid a visit to his college dean, hoping for guidance. What he received instead was a challenge.

The dean referred him to Mr. Daniel Robert, chemistry head at Holkar College, who helped formulate the ink. The dean himself provided ₹250 as seed capital. Once commercial production began, Mr. Milkhichand Sethi of Okays Stationery Mart, Indore, was the first to welcome the brand warmly — recognising that for the first time in India, someone had manufactured drawing ink.

Mr. Ramchand Makhija of Midland Electric and Trading Company, Delhi, helped carry the brand across India. And Mr. H.M. Prem of Vaakils Limited and Mr. Vishnu Parashar trained Daytone's new sales team and shared their network of stationery dealers across South India.

Daytone was never one man's story. It was a community of believers — and it still is.