The Hindu : Pitman's descendant, in long hand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 31, 2004

National

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Pitman's descendant, in long hand

By R. Sujatha

CHENNAI, MARCH 30. For Christopher Miller, the great grandson of Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897) who developed the Pitman's system of shorthand in 1837, "it is an unusual situation" in India. Because, "in England most people have forgotten him. Here, he is kept alive."

That skill of transcribing speech into strokes, dots and dashes has helped those who mastered it. Pitman's invention can be used to transcribe speech from any language since it is phonetic.

In England, the Pitman secretarial course is still offered and includes shorthand, typing, computer skills and office management. Pitman's shorthand is used in some other European languages. However, American journalists have never given the skill much thought, he said.

Mr. Miller is in India on a mission. He is working on a book, tentatively titled A God in the Family. It will have chapters on Pitman and on Hinduism.

"Pitman was a teetotaller, a vegetarian and a non-smoker," said Mr. Miller.

This was Mr. Miller's fourth visit to the Stenographer's Guild, T. Nagar, Chennai to which he has donated money and a full-size statue of Pitman.

The Guild offers several courses. "The very existence of the Guild is on account of Sir Isaac Pitman," said S.V. Ramaswamy, president of the Guild. Recently, the Guild organised a function to mark the 107th death anniversary of Pitman and Mr. Miller gave away stipend amounts to students of the executive secretary course offered by the Guild. He has set up an endowment for poor students. Any royalties from his proposed biography of Pitman will be used to educate the poor, he said.

He lived in Bangalore and worked for three years with a British stock-broking firm. He is now a financial consultant and lives in London. He never learnt shorthand himself, though his sister did.

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