Say Goodbye to the Typewriter

An inevitable news:

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/godrej-to-shut-typewriter-unit-production-with-diminishing-demand/1/137323.html

Saying goodbye to the typewriter era makes me nostalgic.

I joined Godrej in 1983 as a Service Engineer, and among other things was responsible for Typewriter service for the Pune branch. Being trained in the plant at Vikhroli, I found that a Typewriter was a mechanical marvel. A complex chain of linkages operated in coherence to make that letter impression on paper. We had an army of mechanics who went around the region and maintained typewriters. Typists from large corporate offices (especially the charming young variety) were the most difficult creatures to deal with. They would raise a ruckus over trivial snags, and expect the service gang to fall in line immediately. Needless to say we obliged :). As sales people, we used to go on the scent of a new typewriter customer enquiry, always wanting to beat Facit and Remington at the game. A sale of 55 Godrej typewriters to TELCO in a single lot made us virtual heros in the Godrej clan.

To popularize the product, Godrej used to organize Speed-Typing contests. Hoards of typing enthusiasts used to attend and show off their speed and accuracy. The fastest finger was given generous awards. Those ten days, everyone on the Godrej team remotely associated with typewriter sales and service was pressed into service to manage the event. Looking around me I see many of the typewriter sales executives of those days become successful event managers in later years.

Post Godrej days when we started our business, our first asset was an old Underwood portable typewriter. I recall the fun we had sitting through the night devouring cups of tea, and hammering out letters on the typewriter, typing with one finger. Later on, we gained typing expertise and started churning out our early business letters much faster than before.

As the article cited above points out, word processers and computers eventually came in, and the good old rat-a-tat machine went into oblivion.

Old technology must move-on to make way for the modern. Yet I will cherish these old noisy machines in the nostalgic corner of my mind for years to come.