Indian telegraph service closes – in pictures

An employee reads a telegram message at the central telegraph office in New Delhi Photograph: Altaf Qadri/AP

A telegraph employee sits beneath portraits of Nehru and Gandhi at Targhar telegraph office in Allahabad Photograph: Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images

Customers wait to receive their telegram receipts as employees transcribe telegram messages on to a computerised system at the central telegraph office in Kolkata Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images

An employee shows colonial-era date stamps which are still in use at the Targhar Civil Lines telegraph office in Allahabad Photograph: Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images

Tarlok Singh wheels his bicycle as he prepares to deliver telegrams at the central telegraph office in Amritsar Photograph: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images

Old telegraph machines are stored among piles of paper at the telegraph office in Kolkata Photograph: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images

A worker uses a cash receipt printer at the telegraph office in Mumbai Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

A worker sorts incoming telegram messages at the dispatch section of the central telegraph office in Mumbai Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

RG Vijay Kumar shows photographs of the Hyderabad telegraph office taken in 1980 Photograph: Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty Images

A stamp used for telegram forms at the central telegraph office in Mumbai Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

Telegraph messages are stamped at Katchehri telegraph office in Allahabad Photograph: Sanjay Kanojia/AFP/Getty Images

Customers wait at the counter at the central telegraph office in Ahmedabad Photograph: Sam Panthaky/AFP/Getty Images

An Indian employee feeds in a telegram message for the minister of IT, Kapil Sibbal, urging him not to shut down the telegram services, to be sent via telegraph at the central telegraph office in Mumbai Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images