WHEN people my age started their working life, in the early seventies, it was the era of the manual typewriters. People would dictate their business letters and notes to secretaries who would type and get them signed by their bosses. Competence of a secretary would be judged from their shorthand speed, neatness and accuracy in typing. On their part, secretaries did not like if they were asked by their bosses to type the page all over again in case there were any missing lines, excessive errors or improvement of the text by the boss.
I remember my maternal uncle, a professional journalist, who used to dictate his ideas and thoughts to his steno. His steno would come everyday to his house for this purpose. While dictating, my uncle would smoke Hawaiian cigars lying comfortably on his bed. In the same posture, he would check the typed draft, make corrections and return it for retyping. I understand many other writers and intellectuals of the era had a similar style of dictating notes and letter. But I doubt if anyone does so now.
Eventually, as technological advancements occurred, manual typewriters were replaced by electronic typewriters. These new devices improved the quality and presentation of the printed word. Still, these electronic typewriters required more care and expertise from the typist. And even though the erasers provided in the electric typewriters made life easy for the typists, as they did not have to type the page again in case of errors. Eventually it was the induction of computers in the industrial and commercial enterprises in mid-eighties that revolutionized the information retrieval process. The computers also brought with them vast improvements in the sphere of typed material.
Today, with a little effort one can produce, with the help of computers, error free and attractive, high quality documents. And while government departments are still struggling to discard the age-old systems of maintaining voluminous manual records, commercial organizations are rapidly switching over to computerized systems. The email facility has not only saved time on exchange of communication but also reduced the paper work substantially. The use of overhead projectors for business presentations is being substituted with multi-media projectors. This has not only improved the quality of projected material but also made the task of the presenter easy in referring back to a slide shown earlier. One does not have to shuffle his transparencies in case a transparency needs to be shown again. Sometimes the audience is amazed with the quality of such presentations. Computer technology is also helping in the optimization of manpower and organizational restructuring, improvement in the quality of output and increase in volumes. Being an old timer, I was reluctant to operate the computer till recently. It was the great obstacle. Still, somehow my younger colleagues persuaded me to make use of the computer for business correspondence, instead of relying on others for typing. Realizing that one has to keep pace with changing times, even for survival, I joined a computer institute to learn word processing. My tutor was a girl in her twenties and addressed me as ‘uncle’. Since one should not feel embarrassed to learn anything from anyone at any age, I attended the full week’s course and found the experience interesting. Now I can easily type numerous articles with the help of a computer. So, in the end, what I have learnt from my experience and I would like to share it with my peers as well, is that, “Walk up! The computer age has set in.’’
WHEN people my age started their working life, in the early seventies, it was the era of the manual typewriters. People would dictate their business letters and notes to secretaries who would type and get them signed by their bosses. Competence of a secretary would be judged from their shorthand speed, neatness and accuracy in typing. On their part, secretaries did not like if they were asked by their bosses to type the page all over again in case there were any missing lines, excessive errors or improvement of the text by the boss.
