I want to take you back to India of nineteenth century, when means of communications were abysmally puny
or by today's standards, were almost non existent. For ordinary
people of India, there were two methods by which they could
communicate with their fellow countrymen. The first means was
obviously the humble postcard. A piece of card paper about 4 inches
long and 3 inches wide. People wrote as much as humanely possible on
this card in small letters. This card somehow took their messages to
their dear ones to any far or remote corner of India, fairly reliably
in next few weeks. Since life was pretty slow in those days, a
message coming through, after a delay of few weeks was considered
acceptable.
However, there would always be
occasions when, people had to convey a message urgently to someone
else. This could be someone travelling and informing his family that
he has safely reached his destination or a welcome arrival of a new
member in the family or sad news of someone passing away. For such
messages of urgent nature, there was a service called 'Indian
Telegraph service,' through which brief messages or Telegrams were
sent on telephone wires by means of Morse code made up from long and
short Di- Di-Daa-Daa like Dashes and Dots. A message like SOS (Save
our Souls) would go as Di-Di-Di --- Daa-Daa-Daa----Di-Di-Di. Morse
code assigned a fixed DiDi DaaDaa code for every alphabet in English
and the messages would be converted into electrical signals and sent
on telephone wire by means of an instrument called as 'Morse Key.' In
those days anyone visiting a post office was able to hear a steady
stream of DiDiDi's and DaaDaaDaa's coming from the telegraph receptor
keys and similar DiDiDi's and DaaDaaDaa's sent by the telegraph
operator sitting in the post office. Listening to the telegraph key
chatter, I always imagined that I am somehow connected to the wide
outside world: The same feeling that I get today, when I open my
internet browser. Coded telegraphic messages or Telegrams later
became available for certain occasions like congratulating someone
for marriage, success in examinations or having become a proud father
along with get well messages and condolence messages. These were
usually telegraphed just as a number and receiving post office would
just stamp the message on the form with the help of a rubber stamp. I
remember having received more than 100 such telegrams having exactly
same stamped text, when I got married. For such messages, charges
were very low as just one number was telegraphed.
It seems that in India, the first
telegraph message was transmitted live through electrical signals
between Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Diamond Harbour, a distance of
about 50 km, on November 5, 1850; and the service was opened for the
general public in February 1855. Indian telegraph department was
converted into a corporate body along with telephones department,
sometimes during 1990's and became 'Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.' or in
short BSNL.
Over the years, continuous up gradation
was carried out by BSNL for its telegraph service. In 2010, web
based messaging system was introduced for the first time. Even then,
growing Internet penetration and cheaper mobile phones from the last
decade saw, very few people availing of this service from the 182
telegraph offices across the country. In May 2011, BSNL revised
telegram charges after six decades to arrest declining revenues and
make telegraph service economically viable. But it was increasingly
becoming clear that the telegram has lost the race to mobile phones
and emails. BSNL is estimated to have suffered an annual loss of Rs.
300 - 400 Crore (3 to 4 Billion Rupees) from its telegraph services
as it has virtually become redundant.
BSNL has decided now to close, Indian
Telegraphic service or Telegram; one of India’s oldest
communication services from 15th July 2013. From there on
it would become part of history.
As telegram services end in India, many
old timers like me, would remember nostalgically the telegram, that
was once associated with happy and sad moments of our lives like
births, deaths and emergency situations and could be seen in future
perhaps in museums.
15 June 2013
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