My First & Last Telegraph

Thanks to many messenger applications on our Smartphone’s, in today’s technological era we can send message to our friends & it is totally free of cost. Our generation fails to realize the value of a word carries in a message. But when I wrote my first & last telegraph to myself from telegraph office I literally realized the ‘value’ of each & every word. Here is my blog about my first and last telegram, which I drafted for myself.

“Just wait for another five minutes my dear. I will be there in a flash.” I hurriedly told a friend on phone, as I heard the rain beat against the window pane of my office. That flash lasted for 15 minutes and I finally rushed out from my office. As soon as I reached at CST GPO office, I could see the angry eyes of my friend searching for me. But, taking late into consideration the regular Indian Standard Time, and the fact that I was 20 minutes meant that I reached on time. After listening quietly some heavy firing we set out to check out for telegram counter. But before entering the GPO office a rude watchman stopped us on the gate inquiring what we wanted. When we told him we wanted to send a telegraph, he told us that the facility was no longer available there and that we would have to go the Kala Ghoda office.

The scene at the telegraph office was entirely different than what we had imagined it to be. There was already a queue at the counters, which we joined soon. A man behind one of the counters shouted from counter. We headed in group towards counter as there was no one after us in line. 

photo by Shriram Vernekar 

 After taking stops and asking bystanders and shopkeepers for directions and being sent in wrong directions a couple of times, the rainwater and the sweat gave us a feeling of unclean shower.  Finally we reached the premises of an old building with board that read, ‘तार घर मुंबई’ (Telegraph office Mumbai).

After many rounds of many other circles we reach at Kala Ghoda circle. After paying the fare to the Taxiwala, who gave us a ferocious look for making him drive in the rain, we moved towards our next step of landing ourselves in the post office. We sought help of local GPRS system the Panwala.  After bestowing us with the whereabouts of the post office through his stained teeth and stuttering words in between chewing his paan, we turned to walk in the pouring rain. 

 An officer named Mr. Pawar greeted us with a form to be filled with address & a message.  We grabbed 10 forms. As soon as we turned our backs he shouted from behind us saying, “One word will cost one rupee including the address!’

When we finally got down to the process of writing the message, we realized that the real task was to write something cool and at the same time to make sure it didn't cost a lot. You really need some extraordinary talent to write the exact address within the minimum word limit. So we wrote almost one liner messages to each other & to other few people to whom we want to convey our messages using some last telegrams of 163 year old Indian Telegram Service which was about shut down permanently in the next few hours.

The real fun was when we reached counter for paying money. Mr. Pawar checked all the telegraphs. He suggested some necessary corrections of signatures, pin code & all. While we were filling the details he pointed at some text and asked my friend, “Should I count this also? What is it?” Without much explanation she asked him to delete it. When we pressed her to tell us what it was she said asked it was just a heart sign from FB chat’ (<3). Both Mr. Pawar and I dropped our jaws till they reached the ground and exclaimed almost immediately, “Seriously?” She was just laughing, red in the face, gesturing us to carry on with the form filling.

Our form was listed in the previous forms with reference number written on it through some machine which spoke in a mechanical voice We paid the fees according to the word count. While chatting with Mr. Pawar he told us that since the announcement of telegram system ending, the number of telegram had suddenly increased. In the last 14 days before the final day of telegram more than 200 telegrams had been send just to make it special & preserve them in memory forever. 

“Yesterday a couple had visited here. The man was 86 year old & his wife was 80 years old they had send telegrams to each other, with same message - For you forever.” added Mr. Pawar. We were surprised to hear that 90 % of telegrams were sent just as a proof of governmental work and court cases and that to in Mumbai only.

At the end of the conversation Mr Pawar confessed, “Now after working for 37 years in Telegram office we will be given new work. Nothing will change but it’s good to see young people like you are coming to telegram in the last few days of the telegram service. This again shows that we realize the value of things only when it’s ending.”

Though our trip ended on sad note, it became a memorable day for both my friend and I. Now I have one of the last telegrams in India, which I can show to next generation. I wonder if they will really believe that this was the fastest way to communicate a couple of decades ago. 

What I realize after sending this Telegram that though sending message is easy now the emotional attachment with the message is getting less & less first we have to paid for it & it was very rare to send telegram so people have strong emotional bond with that message. Then mobile messaging came where we have to pay less & now we have free chat apps so it’s almost nothing related to emotions when we send messages through new media. What’s your take on this?