To press the seeds to tell our story!
The art of sowing the seeds were a norm known to farmers and the people of the olden days. In the present day, people press different kinds of seeds for different purposes. The cell phone users press the seeds with numbers, the accountants press the seeds of digits on accounting machines, now I am pressing the seeds on the computer.
On the computer also there are people who press seeds on their blackberrys, hand helds, others umpteen number of gadgets for a desired result. The pressing of seeds have become an integral part of our lives.
At times when we are airports we get automated computers for delivery of services and if one is adept at pushing the seeds of the key boards, many small time services can be obtained.
All these alienate us from our immediate neighbours to an extent, as was required earlier.
Now there is an easiness of pushing the seeds or keys, if these are according to ones familiarity. For little children these days, a cell phone is enough to push the seeds and play their games. For the youth a Galaxy or Iphone or yet again any hand held is enough for the same. For the middle aged they need a laptop or something near to it.
For the elderly we need a large desk top key board or the Typewriter key board itself. The old time Typewriter keyboards had a beauty and elan of their on. We had the most beautiful keyboards on Remington, Godrej, Facit and of course our good old Halda!
I had a truck with some of the very old beauties called Olivetti and Underwood too !
All of them had a basket full of teeth with various letters on them connected to different keys on the keyboard. We learned to type on them with great care. The white paper fed into a black rubber roll took the type faces when we pressed the keys! They invariably pressed a ribbon in blue or black color and at times had a bi-coloured ribbon of red and black.
As the type faces pressed, that made an impression of the typed letter on the paper on the roll. Each individual letter and character was pressed by the individual typing on those hilarious machines in those days. Some of them can still be seen around courts and registration offices around the world, especially in India, but fast disappearing!
The typewriters may be disappearing, but not the pressing of the seeds, which still continues in the form of the key board and application of these.
(Now a PS: I pressed a lot of seeds yesterday, but the connection strength became poor and all the seeds which I pressed could not grow into this article, which I found out this morning! But don' worry, I have decided to press them again so that I can produce somewhat the same feelings through further typing them!)
As the type faces pressed, that made an impression of the typed letter on the paper on the roll. Each individual letter and character was pressed by the individual typing on those hilarious machines in those days. Some of them can still be seen around courts and registration offices around the world, especially in India, but fast disappearing!
The typewriters may be disappearing, but not the pressing of the seeds, which still continues in the form of the key board and application of these.
(Now a PS: I pressed a lot of seeds yesterday, but the connection strength became poor and all the seeds which I pressed could not grow into this article, which I found out this morning! But don' worry, I have decided to press them again so that I can produce somewhat the same feelings through further typing them!)
(To be continued..)
The old time typewriters were all in steel with plastic keys.They were in four rows and different steps, one step each slightly higher than the other. One learned to type with both hands with the fingers being trained on the keys in the third row. The starting was with the simple line of
asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj
asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj
That was a hilarious beginning to operating the joy machine. Most of the typewriter makers brought out a baby typewriter which could be carried with a convenient plastic cover and handle which people carried at times on travel too for the ease of writing with the types. The quest for typing with ease led the makers of these machines to invent a better machine to ease the hand pressure when one had to type six to seven pages with carbon papers inserted among them to make many copies when required. There came the electric typewriter as an answer to this! In the electric typewriter the type basket was connected to a motor which supplied enough energy to the types to press more hard at the shift of a small key.
This was replaced by the electronic typewriter which could remember a few pages and type them electronically any number of times. This was the beginning of the oncoming electronic cum computer generation which we see now.
The use of electronic typewriters were also the time the normal typewriters, the electric typewriters and the other small typewriter babies all of which found almost their fag end in the sight of the Desk Top Computers. In the place of an electronic typewriter now stood a Desk Top Computer with its CPU, Key Board with the seeds of letters, digits and other characters, a monitor and a printer. These were costly compared to the typewriters and hence was first in many places only allotted to the Heads of the Divisions and kept on a separate table well covered with its stylish polythene covers and sparingly used or not used at all.
Soon, it was understood an apparatus inside a polethene cover cannot do any work except that it can be a status symbol. Slowly, other junior staff who were too very close to the big wigs started getting training in the usage and the Desk Top Computers started to make an impact in office circles, where many pages were typed everyday, as conversation, on files, and correspondence in the daily handling of different matters! For every thing when a thing first appears in the market and becomes popular first it becomes the a status symbol, then a show off to say I can possess, then an every day requirement and ultimately a tool to be given to the underdogs or employees for daily use to produce results! Next is the thought of the harm it will produce or the handlers may get out of prolonged use. That is the time when the status symbol users will get off from the use of pressing the seeds.
When the first humans found out or invented that seeds can be sown and grown into plants and its fruits or produce can be collected, it would have been the fashionable stuff of that beginning period and slowly it would have gone through all those processes and dissented to the poor people called farmers or farming labourers ! By that time pretty good number of seasons would have elapsed when cultivation would have been done time and again and people who had the high status would have got bored with it.
We started talking about the basic letter writing through the simplest of machines called typewriters. Me for one, had sat on a small stool with an 'Underwood' , its keys rusted, hurting my fingers, typing the letters I told above, with great care and joy as they made lines in the white paper. On my way to the small room in which around 12 of us drummed at various typewriters, we passed through the watchful eyes of our Master who majestically sat at his table with eight to ten other students around him with small note books and him reading out passages to them. Even though, we had no business of what they were doing slowly once the letters started to behave properly and as we wanted, curiosity started to scratch us as to what is the purpose of these other guys writing.
The surprising thing was each one of them read back from the small copy book signs or
cuts and bruises in pencil, exactly what the Master ji had read out or was reading out every time. This was magic. I thought t was great as they rarely looked up from their small books and never saw the paper from which the Master ji was reading. Master ji in turn when he asked them to read turn by turn kept watching the words in the paper, and the writers never saw it at that time.
One of those days, I took courage and asked the Master ji: "What is this that these other friends are writing?" He smiled at me and said: "Feel interested? This is Shorthand!" "What ? Feel like trying a hand?" I asked back: "Can I do it?" "Of course! You can. But perseverance is required. Will have to write three hours at home, if I give you one hour class!" I was READY to Persevere!! What else was there to do! If I come here and go and not study this peculiar stuff, I am merely losing my time! I said: "Yes, I would like to study this new thing. Tell me when to start". "Next week!" Next week I started with a new group of boys and girls to study the peculiar language called "Pittman's Shorthand"
In Pittman's Shorthand, there is no seed sowing or pressing, but here we make cuts and bruises on white paper with red lines. The letter signs called symbols were practised and we had to put it on paper watching the red lines. We were told to make it above the line, on the line and through the line, if I remember correctly. Some were made under the line too! In a matter of four weeks the symbols joined or disjoined called out lines started obeying us.
The use of this language is when we have taken down the matter on paper we can go to our typewriters to press the seeds to create the matter in black and white for which there was a demand and ultimately with a lot of practice this may turn out to be a job provider.
So we started with the friendly lines and their co-related signs! The class became more friendly with the Master ji in the lead. We vied with each other in taming the characters and outlines. I was fascinated by some of the senior guys at the brand new Remingtons and Haldas! The better looking Facit and Godrejs were not in that little school. I was at the 'Underwood' One of my colleague girls were at the 'Olivetti' which also had the rusted and half broken keys which hurt her hands. But we had to do the exercises of letters, semi colons and more letters till we reached abcdefgh..etc... when we could aspire for a machine of our choice. Of course that would be a better machine, not the best ones on the run. They were seggregated for the seniors who wrote in the signs and reproduced in typing at a fast pace. They stopped only when they stumbled on an outline or so. I envied them! I was not to envy, I know. But when you are young, when you like to have something, you forget the catechism lessons and envy. But that was not such a sin, as to hurt them for our betterment. We only hoped, one day we will be able to drive those beautiful machines.
We toiled at the broken keys and started to write the lines, signs and outlines, on the line, above the line and through the line! At times, under line too. We passed our time by practising and talking all subjects in the class as type practice did not need much attention once the fingers were set on the respective keys. We made slow progress, but was steady in our pursuit. We were told we were much too far ahead of normal students and can't imagine to do fast typing that quickly. That we were not to accept and argued, that we were under the orgal agreement that a change had been agreed to when we reached abcd...This was agreed to by the Master ji, who was the authority in those matters, as he was the Manager and Owner of the school.
But there was an endearment side to our next subject namely Shorthand which the Master ji personally taught. He was very cool to us who were in the Shorthand class, as we had to spend more time in the school. Our typing improved and the Olivetti and Underwood had become by heart to us and we even at times helped master ji to oil them and clean them. That earned us a prestige in the class and we were (most of us, say around 5 of us) were promoted to the better machines. Now the distance between me and the best machine was only two machines! I waited for my chance and in the mean time wrote the signs on the line, above the line and under the line and at times, Through the line!!
I had started to read them back too and also read it to other aspirants who wanted to improve upon their practice. The two practices in Shorthand and Typewriting went hand in hand in the adjacent rooms or classes in the little school. And one day I completed the abcdefgh...xyz with ease and earned my place at the best machine!
During the Shorthand classes, every now and then, people in the locality came to the class to meet the Master ji. They wanted to type a Government Stamp Paper with some agreement which was to be executed. This brought a small amount to the Master ji. Master ji being elderly at times returned them, saying "Now there is no time", even though but for the classes going on or some other urgent work, he did not want to return any one. To him that was not only disheartening, but also loss of money. Most of the time when he could afford the time, he did such works on a special baby typewriter which he pulled out from his table drawer. Carefully he fixed it on the table in front of him, pushed the buttons (or the two seeds) on either side of handle and opened and took out the outer cover which kept the machine inside and made it carriable like a hand bag. That was a beautiful machine with glistening chromium at many places. He typed on them. He only typed on them as it was his favorite machine.
One day he was returning one of the gentlemen of the area who came to get an agreement typed. I just took up the opportunity and asked the Master ji opposite whom I was sitting at that time "Can I do it?" Initially he was slightly perplexed as no student ever asked him like that and also he did not know what are my intentions. Also, that machine was given only to those who were very well versed in the art. He thought for a moment, hesitated a bit, then said, "You know the matter is to be typed on Stamp Paper! It can't be spoined, that is the catch! Would you?" I said "Yes" and he gave me the Stamp Paper and the matter and under the graceful watch of the Master ji and the gentleman who brought it, I slowly but steadily did the touch typewriting on the Stamp Paper and completed it without any fault and both the gentleman and the Master ji were happy.
My typewriting really had become superb and I used to run the great Halda and also the Remington as if I was changing new cars! Whenever a person came with some typing work, I reached out to the help of the Master ji saying, "I shall do it, Master ji" which really touched him. Slowly, I became his special student!
I had kept the letter typings in my mind to teach to future aspirants:
asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj
asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj
They would like it. If they did, it would be advantageous for them. During these sutdies, we enjoyed the time in the sunny climate of Kerala. The piercing heat of the day time was not much of a problem for us as the inside of the little school was always cool. I used to meet any number of my relatives and friends below the school as the school stood in the market place almost in the centre of it.
Since we were upstairs (the school was upstairs and there was a bakery run by the owner of the building from which wafted wonderful aromas of cakes and biscuits all the time) the commotion and din of the market did not affect us much.
The kind of frightening machines (like the JCBs and Bull Dozers) were less in those days. Vehicles were less. The occasional bus and usual cars! Then the bi-cycles and the general public coming to the market on foot! A number of bullock carts, which has become redundant these days on main roads. I do not know, where all the animals are gone!
One of those times, I recalled, having seen my father at work with a few people busily discussing some business propositions. At that time, I had been to the Typewriting School for a while and then discontinued the Typing side as I had to proceed to regular school.
Here father when he saw me, motioned me to wait. Once he disposed of the people with whom he was talking, he was in a very free mood and asked me if I had tea : I know, he was in his good moods and very piously I replied as always : "No". He took me to the nearest tea shop to be lavished with his love and affection in the form of the Vella chaya and something to eat and we came out.
Then he told me "Would you like to telephone?" I knew the machine called telephone, usually in very black colour and having a receiver with an mouth piece etc. which we have seen in films and also understood that people can speak into it to be heard by some one far away. I was naturally thrilled!
He gave me a ten naya paise coin with the picture of the Ashoka Sthamba on one side, with the digits '10' written on the other. Just walk across to the shop opposite as tell the Manager that you want to telephone. When he says yes, give him this ten naya paise coin. And you can telephone. For the number it is thirty seven. He always advised me with exact requirements and believed that I can say some English. His belief always thrilled me. I was ready to do anyting in English with as much English I knew. When you get Mathuchettan on the other side (Mathuchettan is the owner of a big Timber Store cum Packing Case company) ask him if he would like to buy the three feet rubber cuttings from rubber trees at three rupees and fifty paise, that is all. Hear the answer and tell me.
I walked across to the shop. Here, the owner of the shop, Ousephettan (Brother Ouseph) was looking benignly at me, as his shop was empty at the time this being noon, lunch time, and people generally visited in the morning and in the afternoon and evenings. I asked him the first question: "Can I make a phone call?" He said 'Yes, ten naya paise'. He looked at father standing across the road and smiled. I put the ten naya paise coin in his hands and he motioned me to the corner of his cloth cutting table, (this was a cloth shop, where cloth was retailed) where the black magic box of the time was sitting majestically.
It did not have any seeds as yet. This machine was a black box with the receiver in the cradle. I picked it up for the first time in my life! What a feeling! I am getting connected to the world! I may speak at this end and somebody in Germany or America can hear! Imagine that. Fantastic. I looked across the street. Father was looking at me jubilantly! His chest would have filled up. My son! He is telephoning. He is grown up to pick up the telephone and speak! From the best of shops in the little city!
As soon as I brought the earphone close to my ear, there was a sweet voice or the sweetest of voices: "Number please...." I remembered the number. "Thirty Seven" for which the sweet voice said "Connecting please, hold on". A moment, two moemnts and a voice, a gruff voice said from the other side "Hallo.. Aaaraanu?" (Helo, who is this?). "Njan ........ude makanaanu." (I am the son of so and so..) "Adeyo?" (Is it so?) He again continued to speak -"Enthaanu vendathu?" (What do you want?) I replied : "moonnadi rubber moonnara roopaikku irakkattennu appan chodikkunnu" (Father is asking if three feet rubber tree cuttings can be downloaded at your company for three rupees and fifty paise for cubic feet?).
"Irakkikkolu, irakkikkolu" (Yes, download, download) . That was my first telephonic conversation. I walked across and told father what Mathuchettan said. He was very happy.
He called the people with whom he was engrossed in discussion earlier and told them "Take the truck to Mathuchettan's firm and download, it is all settled"!
He turned to me and said that I saved him a lot of trouble of Bi-cycling to this gentleman's company and Back by "telephoning and getting the information". I was thrilled to have been of help by using this black machine, still without any seeds on them, the machines in those days without seeds, everything depended on connections. BUT what I could not UNDERSTAND was how Bi-cycling is a trouble at all. Here I was pining to get a bi-cycle and father says about the trouble of bi-cycling! At that young age, I did not understand that people at different age levels felt differently about bi-cycling!
Father was happy to get the information I passed on. He patted me and said: "You did a great job my son..It was a big help today." The next day and the day after next I went to various companies on the bi-cycle and telephoned him whether the Company Manager's opinion on the prices father offered and if he was in agreement with them. After a while I got my first job in a Government office!
The office was in the city district. The phone there was a dialling phone with a ring with digits 1, 2, 3, 4,.... 9 & 0. What ever the number desired to be dialled was to be taken by dialling the ring from the digits on the ring. That phone in time changed with the press button digits which we can consider as seeds. Now it is all pressing the seads to call any number. That had some semblence and connection to the old typewriter with the keys, now the keys slowly changing to seeds and pressing them. Still the the black telephone instrument sets ruled for a while and change over took some time.
Once the change over was complete to press phones, came the new item called the pager which came and went out in a giffy! Before those who hurriedly bought it could show it properly to friends and others, came the final item called the mobile phone!! The ones who heard it were really dumb struck to hear that it needed no wires, no wall connection! All the more, it can be carried in ones pocket!1..Wow..! To keep a magic piece of stone in your pocket and the little bird to chirp when somebody called you.!! Oh..boy...Those who wanted to use it really went for it and pressed the seeds on them. The same 1, 2, 3, 4,....9..0 and some added signs.
A call outgoing was charged sixteen or seventeen rupees per minutes. An incoming call when taken was charged eight rupees or around. The companies made their profit, people who wanted a fast and wireless service got their service.! A win..win...It seemed there was some profit in the business...that companies after companies came in the market with their kind of new new little mobile phones and the prices for calls came down!
Then the phones started to improve with new buttons, full key boards, querty key boards and cameras and actions changed to touching the buttons or signs.
The old typewriters were changing to electric, electronic typewriters and then to computers and printers and scanners. The keys to be pressed were always there! Anybody wanting to say something by way of these machines pressed the key! Times were changing! Every day a new mobile phone with new features are announced. The keys were disappearing fast to touching the screen! May be next generation will not know that too, but may be they will only have to look at the signs on the screen where the eye recognition with the look intensity will change the programmes!
Then this generation will be gone and the new generation will be in! Of course, all for the good of all..!!
asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj
asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj
That was a hilarious beginning to operating the joy machine. Most of the typewriter makers brought out a baby typewriter which could be carried with a convenient plastic cover and handle which people carried at times on travel too for the ease of writing with the types. The quest for typing with ease led the makers of these machines to invent a better machine to ease the hand pressure when one had to type six to seven pages with carbon papers inserted among them to make many copies when required. There came the electric typewriter as an answer to this! In the electric typewriter the type basket was connected to a motor which supplied enough energy to the types to press more hard at the shift of a small key.
This was replaced by the electronic typewriter which could remember a few pages and type them electronically any number of times. This was the beginning of the oncoming electronic cum computer generation which we see now.
The use of electronic typewriters were also the time the normal typewriters, the electric typewriters and the other small typewriter babies all of which found almost their fag end in the sight of the Desk Top Computers. In the place of an electronic typewriter now stood a Desk Top Computer with its CPU, Key Board with the seeds of letters, digits and other characters, a monitor and a printer. These were costly compared to the typewriters and hence was first in many places only allotted to the Heads of the Divisions and kept on a separate table well covered with its stylish polythene covers and sparingly used or not used at all.
Soon, it was understood an apparatus inside a polethene cover cannot do any work except that it can be a status symbol. Slowly, other junior staff who were too very close to the big wigs started getting training in the usage and the Desk Top Computers started to make an impact in office circles, where many pages were typed everyday, as conversation, on files, and correspondence in the daily handling of different matters! For every thing when a thing first appears in the market and becomes popular first it becomes the a status symbol, then a show off to say I can possess, then an every day requirement and ultimately a tool to be given to the underdogs or employees for daily use to produce results! Next is the thought of the harm it will produce or the handlers may get out of prolonged use. That is the time when the status symbol users will get off from the use of pressing the seeds.
When the first humans found out or invented that seeds can be sown and grown into plants and its fruits or produce can be collected, it would have been the fashionable stuff of that beginning period and slowly it would have gone through all those processes and dissented to the poor people called farmers or farming labourers ! By that time pretty good number of seasons would have elapsed when cultivation would have been done time and again and people who had the high status would have got bored with it.
We started talking about the basic letter writing through the simplest of machines called typewriters. Me for one, had sat on a small stool with an 'Underwood' , its keys rusted, hurting my fingers, typing the letters I told above, with great care and joy as they made lines in the white paper. On my way to the small room in which around 12 of us drummed at various typewriters, we passed through the watchful eyes of our Master who majestically sat at his table with eight to ten other students around him with small note books and him reading out passages to them. Even though, we had no business of what they were doing slowly once the letters started to behave properly and as we wanted, curiosity started to scratch us as to what is the purpose of these other guys writing.
The surprising thing was each one of them read back from the small copy book signs or
cuts and bruises in pencil, exactly what the Master ji had read out or was reading out every time. This was magic. I thought t was great as they rarely looked up from their small books and never saw the paper from which the Master ji was reading. Master ji in turn when he asked them to read turn by turn kept watching the words in the paper, and the writers never saw it at that time.
One of those days, I took courage and asked the Master ji: "What is this that these other friends are writing?" He smiled at me and said: "Feel interested? This is Shorthand!" "What ? Feel like trying a hand?" I asked back: "Can I do it?" "Of course! You can. But perseverance is required. Will have to write three hours at home, if I give you one hour class!" I was READY to Persevere!! What else was there to do! If I come here and go and not study this peculiar stuff, I am merely losing my time! I said: "Yes, I would like to study this new thing. Tell me when to start". "Next week!" Next week I started with a new group of boys and girls to study the peculiar language called "Pittman's Shorthand"
In Pittman's Shorthand, there is no seed sowing or pressing, but here we make cuts and bruises on white paper with red lines. The letter signs called symbols were practised and we had to put it on paper watching the red lines. We were told to make it above the line, on the line and through the line, if I remember correctly. Some were made under the line too! In a matter of four weeks the symbols joined or disjoined called out lines started obeying us.
The use of this language is when we have taken down the matter on paper we can go to our typewriters to press the seeds to create the matter in black and white for which there was a demand and ultimately with a lot of practice this may turn out to be a job provider.
So we started with the friendly lines and their co-related signs! The class became more friendly with the Master ji in the lead. We vied with each other in taming the characters and outlines. I was fascinated by some of the senior guys at the brand new Remingtons and Haldas! The better looking Facit and Godrejs were not in that little school. I was at the 'Underwood' One of my colleague girls were at the 'Olivetti' which also had the rusted and half broken keys which hurt her hands. But we had to do the exercises of letters, semi colons and more letters till we reached abcdefgh..etc... when we could aspire for a machine of our choice. Of course that would be a better machine, not the best ones on the run. They were seggregated for the seniors who wrote in the signs and reproduced in typing at a fast pace. They stopped only when they stumbled on an outline or so. I envied them! I was not to envy, I know. But when you are young, when you like to have something, you forget the catechism lessons and envy. But that was not such a sin, as to hurt them for our betterment. We only hoped, one day we will be able to drive those beautiful machines.
We toiled at the broken keys and started to write the lines, signs and outlines, on the line, above the line and through the line! At times, under line too. We passed our time by practising and talking all subjects in the class as type practice did not need much attention once the fingers were set on the respective keys. We made slow progress, but was steady in our pursuit. We were told we were much too far ahead of normal students and can't imagine to do fast typing that quickly. That we were not to accept and argued, that we were under the orgal agreement that a change had been agreed to when we reached abcd...This was agreed to by the Master ji, who was the authority in those matters, as he was the Manager and Owner of the school.
But there was an endearment side to our next subject namely Shorthand which the Master ji personally taught. He was very cool to us who were in the Shorthand class, as we had to spend more time in the school. Our typing improved and the Olivetti and Underwood had become by heart to us and we even at times helped master ji to oil them and clean them. That earned us a prestige in the class and we were (most of us, say around 5 of us) were promoted to the better machines. Now the distance between me and the best machine was only two machines! I waited for my chance and in the mean time wrote the signs on the line, above the line and under the line and at times, Through the line!!
I had started to read them back too and also read it to other aspirants who wanted to improve upon their practice. The two practices in Shorthand and Typewriting went hand in hand in the adjacent rooms or classes in the little school. And one day I completed the abcdefgh...xyz with ease and earned my place at the best machine!
During the Shorthand classes, every now and then, people in the locality came to the class to meet the Master ji. They wanted to type a Government Stamp Paper with some agreement which was to be executed. This brought a small amount to the Master ji. Master ji being elderly at times returned them, saying "Now there is no time", even though but for the classes going on or some other urgent work, he did not want to return any one. To him that was not only disheartening, but also loss of money. Most of the time when he could afford the time, he did such works on a special baby typewriter which he pulled out from his table drawer. Carefully he fixed it on the table in front of him, pushed the buttons (or the two seeds) on either side of handle and opened and took out the outer cover which kept the machine inside and made it carriable like a hand bag. That was a beautiful machine with glistening chromium at many places. He typed on them. He only typed on them as it was his favorite machine.
One day he was returning one of the gentlemen of the area who came to get an agreement typed. I just took up the opportunity and asked the Master ji opposite whom I was sitting at that time "Can I do it?" Initially he was slightly perplexed as no student ever asked him like that and also he did not know what are my intentions. Also, that machine was given only to those who were very well versed in the art. He thought for a moment, hesitated a bit, then said, "You know the matter is to be typed on Stamp Paper! It can't be spoined, that is the catch! Would you?" I said "Yes" and he gave me the Stamp Paper and the matter and under the graceful watch of the Master ji and the gentleman who brought it, I slowly but steadily did the touch typewriting on the Stamp Paper and completed it without any fault and both the gentleman and the Master ji were happy.
My typewriting really had become superb and I used to run the great Halda and also the Remington as if I was changing new cars! Whenever a person came with some typing work, I reached out to the help of the Master ji saying, "I shall do it, Master ji" which really touched him. Slowly, I became his special student!
I had kept the letter typings in my mind to teach to future aspirants:
asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj
asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj asdfgf ;lkjhj
They would like it. If they did, it would be advantageous for them. During these sutdies, we enjoyed the time in the sunny climate of Kerala. The piercing heat of the day time was not much of a problem for us as the inside of the little school was always cool. I used to meet any number of my relatives and friends below the school as the school stood in the market place almost in the centre of it.
Since we were upstairs (the school was upstairs and there was a bakery run by the owner of the building from which wafted wonderful aromas of cakes and biscuits all the time) the commotion and din of the market did not affect us much.
The kind of frightening machines (like the JCBs and Bull Dozers) were less in those days. Vehicles were less. The occasional bus and usual cars! Then the bi-cycles and the general public coming to the market on foot! A number of bullock carts, which has become redundant these days on main roads. I do not know, where all the animals are gone!
One of those times, I recalled, having seen my father at work with a few people busily discussing some business propositions. At that time, I had been to the Typewriting School for a while and then discontinued the Typing side as I had to proceed to regular school.
Here father when he saw me, motioned me to wait. Once he disposed of the people with whom he was talking, he was in a very free mood and asked me if I had tea : I know, he was in his good moods and very piously I replied as always : "No". He took me to the nearest tea shop to be lavished with his love and affection in the form of the Vella chaya and something to eat and we came out.
Then he told me "Would you like to telephone?" I knew the machine called telephone, usually in very black colour and having a receiver with an mouth piece etc. which we have seen in films and also understood that people can speak into it to be heard by some one far away. I was naturally thrilled!
He gave me a ten naya paise coin with the picture of the Ashoka Sthamba on one side, with the digits '10' written on the other. Just walk across to the shop opposite as tell the Manager that you want to telephone. When he says yes, give him this ten naya paise coin. And you can telephone. For the number it is thirty seven. He always advised me with exact requirements and believed that I can say some English. His belief always thrilled me. I was ready to do anyting in English with as much English I knew. When you get Mathuchettan on the other side (Mathuchettan is the owner of a big Timber Store cum Packing Case company) ask him if he would like to buy the three feet rubber cuttings from rubber trees at three rupees and fifty paise, that is all. Hear the answer and tell me.
I walked across to the shop. Here, the owner of the shop, Ousephettan (Brother Ouseph) was looking benignly at me, as his shop was empty at the time this being noon, lunch time, and people generally visited in the morning and in the afternoon and evenings. I asked him the first question: "Can I make a phone call?" He said 'Yes, ten naya paise'. He looked at father standing across the road and smiled. I put the ten naya paise coin in his hands and he motioned me to the corner of his cloth cutting table, (this was a cloth shop, where cloth was retailed) where the black magic box of the time was sitting majestically.
It did not have any seeds as yet. This machine was a black box with the receiver in the cradle. I picked it up for the first time in my life! What a feeling! I am getting connected to the world! I may speak at this end and somebody in Germany or America can hear! Imagine that. Fantastic. I looked across the street. Father was looking at me jubilantly! His chest would have filled up. My son! He is telephoning. He is grown up to pick up the telephone and speak! From the best of shops in the little city!
As soon as I brought the earphone close to my ear, there was a sweet voice or the sweetest of voices: "Number please...." I remembered the number. "Thirty Seven" for which the sweet voice said "Connecting please, hold on". A moment, two moemnts and a voice, a gruff voice said from the other side "Hallo.. Aaaraanu?" (Helo, who is this?). "Njan ........ude makanaanu." (I am the son of so and so..) "Adeyo?" (Is it so?) He again continued to speak -"Enthaanu vendathu?" (What do you want?) I replied : "moonnadi rubber moonnara roopaikku irakkattennu appan chodikkunnu" (Father is asking if three feet rubber tree cuttings can be downloaded at your company for three rupees and fifty paise for cubic feet?).
"Irakkikkolu, irakkikkolu" (Yes, download, download) . That was my first telephonic conversation. I walked across and told father what Mathuchettan said. He was very happy.
He called the people with whom he was engrossed in discussion earlier and told them "Take the truck to Mathuchettan's firm and download, it is all settled"!
He turned to me and said that I saved him a lot of trouble of Bi-cycling to this gentleman's company and Back by "telephoning and getting the information". I was thrilled to have been of help by using this black machine, still without any seeds on them, the machines in those days without seeds, everything depended on connections. BUT what I could not UNDERSTAND was how Bi-cycling is a trouble at all. Here I was pining to get a bi-cycle and father says about the trouble of bi-cycling! At that young age, I did not understand that people at different age levels felt differently about bi-cycling!
Father was happy to get the information I passed on. He patted me and said: "You did a great job my son..It was a big help today." The next day and the day after next I went to various companies on the bi-cycle and telephoned him whether the Company Manager's opinion on the prices father offered and if he was in agreement with them. After a while I got my first job in a Government office!
The office was in the city district. The phone there was a dialling phone with a ring with digits 1, 2, 3, 4,.... 9 & 0. What ever the number desired to be dialled was to be taken by dialling the ring from the digits on the ring. That phone in time changed with the press button digits which we can consider as seeds. Now it is all pressing the seads to call any number. That had some semblence and connection to the old typewriter with the keys, now the keys slowly changing to seeds and pressing them. Still the the black telephone instrument sets ruled for a while and change over took some time.
Once the change over was complete to press phones, came the new item called the pager which came and went out in a giffy! Before those who hurriedly bought it could show it properly to friends and others, came the final item called the mobile phone!! The ones who heard it were really dumb struck to hear that it needed no wires, no wall connection! All the more, it can be carried in ones pocket!1..Wow..! To keep a magic piece of stone in your pocket and the little bird to chirp when somebody called you.!! Oh..boy...Those who wanted to use it really went for it and pressed the seeds on them. The same 1, 2, 3, 4,....9..0 and some added signs.
A call outgoing was charged sixteen or seventeen rupees per minutes. An incoming call when taken was charged eight rupees or around. The companies made their profit, people who wanted a fast and wireless service got their service.! A win..win...It seemed there was some profit in the business...that companies after companies came in the market with their kind of new new little mobile phones and the prices for calls came down!
Then the phones started to improve with new buttons, full key boards, querty key boards and cameras and actions changed to touching the buttons or signs.
The old typewriters were changing to electric, electronic typewriters and then to computers and printers and scanners. The keys to be pressed were always there! Anybody wanting to say something by way of these machines pressed the key! Times were changing! Every day a new mobile phone with new features are announced. The keys were disappearing fast to touching the screen! May be next generation will not know that too, but may be they will only have to look at the signs on the screen where the eye recognition with the look intensity will change the programmes!
Then this generation will be gone and the new generation will be in! Of course, all for the good of all..!!
No comments:
Post a Comment