In the loving memory of..........

It carried just enough weightage to get an obscure space in the popular newspaper “THE TIMES OF INDIA”. No, it was not any flowery obituary, neither was it a paean for something that was of considerable importance till a couple of decades back. The news item went on the lines of “It’s the end of an era. The last telegram — popularly called taar (तार) that was once loved and feared as the bearer of good and bad news — will be sent on July 15. After that, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has decided to discontinue the service which started the Indian telecom revolution in 1850.” Though yours truly never used the medium to send any news till date, the news somehow made me sad. As if some invaluable part of the Indian psyche was on its deathbed!

I wondered about the unfathomable advance that the communication media has seen. From the colourful postcards and the sky blue inland letters to the present day fax and e-mails, the ways we communicate has seen a sea of change, and how! My earliest memories of any correspondence from the relatives go back to the azure inland letters sent by my Grandmother to my father. The letters contained details about the household, and at times, dried flowers and a few pinches of dry colours of the “Phakuwa Puja” (the worshipping ritual in my paternal home during Holi in Lahoal, Dibrugarh). Each letter was a much awaited affair, and was received with utmost care and respect. As the years rolled by, the inland letter became rarer. I blame this on the black telephone which was installed at my Grandmother’s place. 

The telephone was again a quite sophisticated affair. I remember how we kids stood in awe when we heard the elders talking on it. And the elder cousins who were adept in dialling the numbers in the small black monster were considered superheroes! As my Uncle was with the telecom department, it was quite early that the instrument was installed in the household. And STD calls were premium services. The children were not allowed to touch the much revered instrument. As the years rolled by, cordless phones began to appear. It became a common sight to find people talking on the cordless handsets sitting in their verandah…

And just as independent houses began to disappear from the scene and flats took over, similarly the landlines became a passé, paving the way for the most important gadget in our lives today, namely, the mobile phone! In the medical college from where I did my graduation, the first person who is credited with the unique distinction of possessing the first handset (the big black Motorola handset which came to be known as “the brick” in the later years) is still a much remembered personality. Eyes turned wherever he went, with his left palm holding the handset close to his ear, talking in enthusiasm with his fiancé, much to the envy of the lesser mortals deprived of the advantage. In the years to come, he was immortalized in the vocal dictionary of the medical college as “Mobile Baba”. 

With incoming calls also being charged, mobiles were not meant for the common man. But gradually, it became viral. As the call charge rates dropped, and incoming calls came for free, everybody became its fan. Right from the friendly rickshaw-puller to the familiar fishmonger who could keep his customers updated about his freshest stock, every breathing homo sapien became addicted to the cell phone. 

And then came the internet. E-mails became the most favoured medium to correspond, and somewhere down the line, this marked almost the end of letters and postcards.

Skype, WhatsApp, Yahoo Messenger…you name them and they are there. Coming back to where I started, battling nostalgia and sentiments, it’s the appropriate time to bid adieu to the telegram. The bombardment of the newage platforms has ultimately sent the 163 years old wobbling telegram to its final resting place. And who knows what the future holds!