Back in my high school days, we were made to believe that if we didn’t learn typewriting and/or shorthand, we wouldn’t have a career. To be honest, even when I was in the last year of my school I had little idea of where my career would be. Anyway, we guys used to flock the institutes to learn shorthand and typewriting. Most guys from boys’ school went to these institutes also because that’s where it is co-ed. The fact that you could write love letters in shorthand excited one and all. Typewriting and shorthand were considered as special skills. Some could type 60 words per minute and some wouldn’t even be able to push the keys hard enough to see the ink on paper. You can guess where I would have fallen.

I was a complete failure at typewriting. I did join the typewriting classes but it did not even last a week. I decided to drop out because of two reasons. One, I thought it was a bit too clerical for my liking. I came to a conclusion that my typewriting ability or the lack of it would never have an impact on my career. Two, as you’ve found out by now, I couldn’t type. As simple as that. The typewriter was such a hard mechanical device that lacked style and sophistication. I thought it was an everlasting symbol of industrial revolution. I was way too gentle for that. I just couldn’t do it. That’s not to say I’m not dexterous. I’m a console addict, can beat you to death in an xbox game. Typewriter was not my thing.

Meanwhile, I was always crazy about shorthand. There was something special about shorthand. That was like learning a new language. A language only a handful would know. In a way, it was also a code language. It’s fun to write stuff that not all mortals can understand. For some reason that I don’t remember, I never joined the shorthand classes. But I had this shorthand book that was picked up in a platform shop. I tried to learn it myself. It needed a lot of patience than I had expected. I could not graduate beyond cat, mat and rat.

About 15 years later, both typewriting and shorthand seem like a dying skill. There are not many institutes and not many willing to learn. Sometime in the last few years, I’ve learnt to type. I’m not the fastest typer (I hate the word ‘typist’) but I not a rabbit either. Typing with the computer keyboard gives me a lot of pleasure than with the typewriter. In terms of convenience, the computer keyboard is only a million times better. Flat keyboards with soft touch key pads. Also thank God for backspace, copy, paste and all that stuff. The most important thing is again the sophistication I was talking about. The other plus I see is that, with the keyboard, I can see and read what I type. The pleasure of admiring your own creation. With typewriter, the paper is arrested inside the metal frames and I feel like I’m punishing the paper with hammering hits. It’s like canning the paper and if you’re poor at writing, it’s even worse, pity the paper. I know there are people who still love the typewriter. As an invention, it is just brilliant and its design is absolutely original. In terms of usage, I think it’s slowly moving to the museums.

I still have the fascination towards shorthand. It will always be in the list of things that I always wanted to do but never did. One of the less obscene things in the list. I think shorthand has already gone out of fashion and business. Dictaphones have completely eliminated the need for learning this not-so-easy skill which requires constant practice to stay upto speed. With dictaphones, you just have to switch it on and you don’t have to go to institutes to learn how to switch it on. I don’t know if anyone still learns or practices shorthand. It’s a pity that shorthand is disappearing. There is something romantic about it.

I’m not sure if all those experts in typewriting and shorthand still stand to benefit from their skill. I know most of those institutes turned into computer education centres. At least the typewriting/shorthand institutes charged less. I’m not sad that these are going out of existence. I’m just amazed at the pace of technological development that has rendered these ‘once-career-defining’ skills to something useless in a matter of 10 to 15 years. I’m just 30 and certain things that I’ve seen and experienced back then now would look like a scene from those black and white movies. Can I say mobiles that we use now may go out of existence (or develop into something else) in another 15 years?