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The once ubiquitous telegram is alive, sans Morse, and married to the computer

Livewire A telegraph office might have a desolate look now but in earlier times, it was one of the fastest tools of communication. An example can be seen here (below) where Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, then President, Indian National Congress, reads an important telegram

The advancement in Information Technology in recent years has weeded the telegram out from our daily lives. In the age of mobile phones when anyone — just anyone, from close relatives to VIPs — is just 10 digits and a push-button away, who would bother to go all the way to the telegraph office, fill up a form and wait to get the message across? The waiting time depended on many factors, including your fluency in filling up the form (though the readymade sample messages were always displayed on a large board in the telegraph office), and the operator’s fluency in coding the message, and then the proficiency of the operator at decoding the Morse code at the other end.

But no more such hassles. Although the telegram has faded away from our day-to-day life and nobody uses it for sending greetings to near and dear ones or informing them about his or her arrival, it has not died altogether. The once ubiquitous telegram is alive, sans Morse, and married to the computer. There are about 25 telegraph offices in the Capital, some of whom work round the clock. Most of these are still housed in colonial buildings, but apart from the pre-Independence furniture, there is nothing that can make the over-60s nostalgic. The old machine, commonly known as ghirr-gitt in the telegram office employees’ parlance (it made such sounds when it was operated), is nowhere to be seen. The computer has taken its place.

“The Morse code machines were thrown out in the late ’80s and a new system was introduced. Now that too is on its last legs, and we have adopted a new technology called Web Based Telegraph Messaging System,” says M.L. Yadav, a supervisor at the Central Telegraph Office at Janpath. The CBSE syllabus may still be teaching students to write a telegram in a maximum of 20 words (a five-mark question in the Boards), but the new telegram is not bound by word limits. You can write as many words as you like in a telegram and they would be reproduced as such at the other end without the mid-wifery of an operator.

So, who is using it nowadays? “Usually people or organisations who want to keep a proof that they have sent a message use it. These include banks, government employees, and PSUs,” says Dayanand, an employee at the Kashmere Gate Telegraph Office. “Telegram is much cheaper, at Rs.4 for 10 words, than a registered post, which costs around Rs.30 minimum,” he adds.

Photo: V. Sudershan

“I am sending a telegram to my boss in Ladakh to extend my leave. It is cheaper and I would have a proof of it,” says Tundup, a Central Government employee. “I often use telegrams to convey messages to the department,” says Vibhas Chandra, a Railway employee, as he fills up the telegram form.

“Sometimes we receive telegrams in bulk from the banks who send notices to loan defaulters. But it is not as widely used nowadays as it used to be. We had to shut down many offices after 2000, when the post office started demanding rent for its properties from us,” says Yadav. Incidentally, some countries including Pakistan, Germany and Korea have totally stopped the telegraphic services.

The once ubiquitous telegram is alive, sans Morse, and married to the computer

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