Homage to the stenographer
Last Updated : 05 Aug 2011 12:26:55 AM IST
I was returning home after getting to know the result of my matriculation examination, worrying how my father would respond on hearing that I had failed. My father was sitting in the verandah reading a newspaper. He continued reading the paper without acknowledging my arrival. It was as though he knew about the result. Without waiting for me to break the news, he said: “I have selected the best institute, Sriram Commercial Institute and you will go there for training in shorthand and typewriting.”This was the case in most of the families in the south, where after school the youth were sent to study shorthand and typewriting, irrespective of the result. To be fair to my parents, they were willing to give me the option of choosing the place. I chose Calcutta, despite the fact that Bombay was the most preferred destination for stenographers those days. Almost every youth aspired to land at Bombay, the dream city and get a Matunga address. That was the time when job openings were scarce for degree-holders and even for professionals but a short training in stenography was enough to get into an organisation. Stenographer had come to be recognised as a most important and indispensable element in an organisation. The destination for aspiring stenographers was Matunga in Bombay, Ballygunge in Calcutta and Karol Bagh in Delhi. Over the years, the art of stenography became the exclusive preserve of South Indians. The influx of stenographers to Bombay became so heavy that a political party even launched movement against ‘Madrasis’.While some used stenography as a ladder to climb up, others stuck to their profession for the love of it. It improved their knowledge of English and gave them access to the power centre or the decision-making authority. As the winds of change started blowing, information technology brought in a revolution in the field of communication and stenographers became the first casualty. This writer is put in an unpleasant situation of writing an obituary for the dear old Stenographer since nobody seems to have shed any tears for him. The premises of Kalpathy Commercial Institute at Palakkad which produced many stalwarts in the early ‘50s and ‘60s have now been converted into a hotel. The Muruga Institute of Commerce, Calicut, that imparted training in stenography is now a shopping complex. Now, stenographers have become not an endangered but extinct species.However, the Stenographers’ Guild, established at T Nagar in Madras, when the glory of the profession was at its peak, stands as the lone beacon for a profession that has paled into the pages of history.
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