Due to the very nature of ageing that tempts to reminiscence the past events very often, I recalled many and one such is my gaining “typing knowledge”. In 1960s and 1970s it was an automatic landing in a Typewriting Institute immediately after writing S.S.L.C. Examination. A week back I had the golden opportunity to enter in the Typewriting Institute that still exists in the Main Road of busy Pondy Bazaar at T.Nagar, where I took my course in 1962-63 and passed the Lower Grade Examination in English and Tamil in April, 1963. It is human courtesy not to forget the parents, the birth place, the first school and its teacher who taught A,B,C,D or அ,ஆ, இ, ஈ .. and likewise, we can not forget any one who taught us a different art for our life’s development and equally our first appointment and its employer. Typewriting is one such and I stepped into the Institute that was established in the year 1951 and fortunately , it is still being run by the same owner’s heirs. On our meeting and exchanging the good old memories, the present owner felt immensely happy to find an old student as an old man remembered them after more than fifty five years. Our life’s happiness exists elsewhere and this kind is one among such different ones to remember the past and physically land in the place where we kept our feet many decades back to learn an ‘art’ which remains instrumental for our development.
I well remember the day of Examination which was held in the nearby Ramakrishna Mission High School (Main) near Panagal Park on a heavy rainy day and my seat was exactly near a window and as a result, my fingers were actually shivering due to cold. Anyway, God was by my side and I was called for the Mechanism Test. At that time, passing a ‘mechanism’ was a must and then only we would be given the “certificate of pass”. So, I prepared for this test truthfully. During this technical interview when the examiner asked me the name of a particular part of the machine, I honestly told him that I knew the name correctly but forgot then. The examiner repeatedly asked me whether I was really aware of its name or not, but my answer was firm and I promised him that I knew its name for having read very thoroughly but forgot only then. The examiner could not control his laugh and pat me for my innocent but determined reply and however advised me to be more careful in future in such circumstances. It was my unforgettable experience. Thereafter, when I got selected for the post of Office Clerk in Southern Railway at the year end of 1963, the dealing clerk advised me to sincerely continue my typing knowledge so that it would surely be helpful to my future career in the appointed category. His advice is an ever ringing tone in my ears, as this knowledge of typing helped me a lot in my entire official life for nearly four decades. Yes, I never depended on any typist (leading to delay in typing on its turn) for typing my official papers but typed myself mistake free and saved lot of time in clearing the papers then and there. Also, whenever the stenographer was absent or on leave or otherwise busy, I was able to help my officers to place their dictations neatly typed and got appreciations. This ‘art’ is ever useful even with the computers, the key boards of which are almost similar and as such my ‘speed’ still continues. By God’s grace, even at this age of 75, my finger nerves are still strong enough to operate both computer & typewriter and I am fortunate to help my retired fraternity on their pension matters. Certain things in life cannot be explained but only be experienced. In this way, this ‘power’ of ‘knowledge’ earned me a good name and fame, both in my official and personal life. I was able to help in typing anything my colleagues wanted at any point of time and also whenever l went to other offices, if my work was holding because of ‘typing’, I did it immediately and got it cleared.
Much before the advent of computers, the typewriting machines ruled for decades. It was a symbol of professional and technical proficiency of an educated person. ‘Shorthand’ was an additional meritorious qualification to a typist to get elevated as Stenographer/Personal Secretary. All these courses were ‘vocational’ and later on became life’s ‘passion’ for many. Popularly known as “High Court Typists”, many professional experts were having extra-ordinary typing speed capacity, unbelievably using just one or two fingers alone by virtue of their experience. At times, this ‘boon’ also became a ‘bane’, for, the boss would be able to find whether the typist is on job or not, if machine’s sound of typing followed by margin bell ring, carriage return, space bar, etc., are silent.
Initially, it was something confusing me to find the alphabet on the key board in disorder as a,s,d,f,g,h instead of a,b,c,d,e. Either the Englishmen were wrong in their order of alphabets or Remington/Halda/Godrej (now a days, they have become almost invisible, and can hardly be seen in olden days movies or sporadically in courts and fortunately in few typewriting institutes that still exist, inspite of or because of its uniqueness) while inventing the typewriter to get them mixed up. Even with the computers, the same pattern continues for the reasons best known to its inventors. The mystery of jumbled letters sequencing “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs” and “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” do remain evergreen to all those learnt this art. Typists were always held in high esteem and were considered to be walking dictionaries in the absence of present days’ computers and internet facilities. In this way, it was not uncommon in those days that typists were rising to high positions by their hard work and commitment. Days are changed with the advent of computers that edit, modify, check spellings and give alternatives to what we want to write.
To take more copies (there were no ‘xerox’ as of now) we used thin manifolding papers with carbon sheets. Wonderfully, there were people used to compare/check each copy of them out of doubt? During my Railway service, when I asked a newly joined Typist “What is your speed?”, the person simply shot back, “It all depends on my mood, Sir.” How is it?,
Above all, I salute this vanishing “ART” of typing in typewriters and remember always, because, it is the unchanged strong base.
mageshkumaradithya@gmail.com
