Skip to main content

Telegrams

Telegrams

Saar, Telegram .... till a decade ago, these two words were the most dreaded ones even during the daytime. Imagine one's plight if the knock comes after dark. Those days, a telegram meant a carrier of death news only. Everyone was "scared" to receive a telegram as it portended bad news. However that was the only quick way to communicate those days. Normal telegrams, meaning those carrying normal news like someone's arrival, were not delivered after the sunset - the black telegrams, carrying death news, were accorded XXX priority and were delivered 24 hours.

Telegrams, invented by Samuel Morse (1791 - 1872), carried also the news about arrivals (though there is the standing joke that the person would in fact actually arrive before the telegram was delivered !), and interviews. Even in mid 1990s I remember ARUN receiving his offer of employment, and ASHOK receiving his selection to MCA course at Hyd Univ through telegrams only.Apart from such normal and XXX telegrams, there were "Greetings" telegrams - you specify a coded number and the recipient will receive the greetings message - very popular for the marriages. However the moot point is whether the bride or the groom (or their parents) ever saw even a single telegram !!!

As the telegrams were charged per word including the address portion, the offices and other establishments registered for their own abbreviated Telegraphic address in a single word (MISLAB was used by our DRDL). As per military rules-books, whatever one talks on phone has mandatorily to be followed by a telegram !!Also, there was this "phonogram", a facility to dictate your message over your phone to the telegraph office who will then send the telegram.

All these and other similar thoughts were criss-crossing my mind when I read in RA Puram Post Office yesterday, that the BOOKING AND DELIVERY OF TELEGRAMS from Post Offices have been STOPPED effective 01 April 2007. Telegrams can now be booked only in denoted Telegraph Offices, which are very few and far between.

The standard reply of the officials is that there is very less patronage for this mode of communication in today's world of mobile phones, internet, SMSes and emails. True. When a person can talk from anywhere in India to anywhere for just ONE rupee (per minute), who needs the Telegrams today?

So, that's the END of telegrams and the system - a fall of another 150-years' old instituition. No more you will hear, "Saar Telegram."God Bless

Rajappa12:10 noon on 24 April

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kumar-Lalitha Sashti Aptha Poorthy

Kumar celebrated his Sashti Aptha Poorthy (60th birthday) on 03 June 2009 at Annanagar West. Rudra Ekadasi was performed at 05:00 AM; we didn't attend this. Ganesan had come from Mumbai on 2nd June afternoon 1:30 PM and he stayed with us. Ramani came by train on 2nd morning and he stayed with Lalitha at Avadi. On 3rd, we two and Ganesan took ARUN's car with a driver and went to Annanagar by 0815. The rituals were going on already. Indira, Sruthi, Akila, Raja, Aparna, Jyotsna were already there. Later, Saroja, Athimber came. Gayathri, Sowmya, Sriram came with Sudha and her inlaws in a calltaxi. Krithika came with Aditi in their car, with a driver. Arvind took ill suddenly, so he couldn't come. TSG and mami came. The function was a nice one; it was over by 1215 PM. After lunch all of us started leaving. We were home by 2-15PM. rajappa 11:00 am on 6 June 2009

TRVG's daughter's Marriage

TR Venugopal is known to us since 1971 from our Poona days. He is now Senior Accounts officer at DMRL, Hyderabad. He performed the marriage of his daughter JANANI with Natarajan at Nanganallur Chennai on Sunday, 10th July 2011. Vijaya and I attended it. Venugopal on the right, his wife Saraswathi on the left We left house at 6-10 AM in Wagon-R and reached the Rama Mandiram Kalyana Mandapam at Nanganallur by 6-50. The Mandapam is just next to the Anjaneyar Koil. There we met my former colleagues at ERDL Cell, DRDL Hyd. Ganesan, Nair, Jagadeesan, Saibaba, Subba Reddy, Srinivasa Reddy, S Venugopala Murthy, Venkataramaiah, Ramakrishnaiah, Kaleeswaran, Mohan Rao, Rangarajan etc; they had come with their wives. Ganesan and his wife Gomathi with us NAIR (behind Vijaya) his daughter PREETHI (next to Vijaya) Preethi's husband (Airforce, Agra) is also seen. Venkataramaiah, Srinivas Reddy, Ramakrishnaiah, ME, SVG Murthy, his wife Vijaya, Saibaba's wife, Saibaba Ramalakshmi, now a

Anna Centenary Library, Kotturpuram

ANNA CENTENARY LIBARARY (அண்ணா நூற்றாண்டு நூலகம்) is a newly established State Library of Tamilnadu. It was declared open on 15th Sept 2010. Located in Kotturpuram, Chennai. This last Sunday, 1st May 2011, we hit upon the idea - we will go and see this library. No serious reason, but a sudden whiff of fancy. Vijaya, her old classmate and friend Mrs Prema, and I left house at 3-30PM. A bus upto Madhya Kailash, and an auto thereon, left us at the gates of this huge, beautiful building at 4 PM. From the outside, it was immensely impressive and imposing - maybe of 9 or 10 floors, exquisitely constructed. As we walked the lawns to reach the Main Entrance, the interest in us was bubbling. (Caution: Handbags, Cameras are strictly prohibited. Even waterbottles are not allowed inside the halls.) There is a 5-feet bronze statue of Mr CN Annadurai, in whose name and honour this library is built. This is the Tamilnadu Chief minister Mr M Karunanidhi's pet project and he, as usual, has ov