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  [22]Hidden Value | [23]India
  India's nostalgic passion for old typewriters
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  (Image credit: Alamy)
  A typist typing on a typewriter in Mumbai, India (Credit: Alamy)
  By Kamala Thiagarajan28th September 2021
  For some Indian enthusiasts, vintage typewriters aren't outdated pieces
  of machinery – they're practical and cherished possessions.
  I

  In a small room, painted a light shade of pastel pink, nearly a dozen
  men and women are hard at work, hunched over desks that line the walls,
  their fingers flying at a frenzied pace over clattering keys. The
  soothing rhythm of typing punctuates the incessant drone of traffic.

  For the last six years, in the heart of one of the busiest streets in
  the Southern Indian town of Madurai, Dhanalakshmi Bhaskaran has been
  teaching typing skills in shifts to hundreds of students every day,
  running an institute powered entirely by 20 manual typewriters.

  The Umapathi Typewriting Institute, named after her son, can teach you
  typing in three languages – English, Hindi and the local language of
  Tamil. The typewriter they use, a model called Facit, is more or less
  unchanged since it was [26]launched in the late 1950s. Bhaskaran's
  students come from all walks of life, she says. Some are still in high
  school, intent on learning typing to give themselves an edge in a
  competitive job market. Others are professionals vying to secure jobs
  in government-run offices. There are a few young mothers too, drawn to
  her classes with the hope of re-starting their careers after having
  children.

  The institute is one of many government-approved centres for typing –
  at the end of the course, students are enrolled in exams conducted
  every six months. If they pass, the certificates that are issued are
  helpful for jobseekers.

  But in a world where mechanical technologies have long been superseded
  by digital ones, and where laptops, computers and even tablets are now
  more affordable than ever, why would anyone invest in their typewriting
  skills?

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  For job seekers who don't have access to laptops or personal computers
  at home, learning typing on a manual typewriter can be a lifeline, says
  Bhaskaran. "Once you've trained on this machine, you can really improve
  your typing speed and avoid mistakes. And it's easy to transfer those
  skills to the computer," she says. A typewriter's portability is
  practical and prized, too. After lockdown restrictions eased, students
  could socially distance as they typed, something that may not have been
  possible had they been instructing people on larger computer systems,
  says Bhaskaran.

  In 2009, Godrej & Boyce, one of the last Indian companies to
  manufacture typewriters, decided to stop production. At the time, many
  predicted that the manual typewriter, which once held pride of place in
  India's homes and offices, would finally grow obsolete – a dinosaur
  consumed by digital technology.

  And yet, a decade later, in the winding alleyways of India's small
  towns and even in the heart of its larger cities, the manual typewriter
  still thrives.
  Honing your typing skills on a typewriter is high-stakes, because
  mistakes can't be easily corrected – so it's a great way to learn to
  type with precision (Credit: Alamy)

  Honing your typing skills on a typewriter is high-stakes, because
  mistakes can't be easily corrected – so it's a great way to learn to
  type with precision (Credit: Alamy)

  Rajesh Palta is the owner of Universal Typewriters Co. He has been
  refurbishing and selling typewriters from his store in New Delhi's
  Kamla market since 1954. "As a family, we've been in the business of
  typewriters for more than a hundred years," he says. His family
  business was even featured in a book that chronicled the journey of the
  typewriter in India: [30]With Great Truth and Regard: A Story of the
  Typewriter in India.

  "While the mainstream use of typewriters in India is already dead,
  there is a very specific demand that dealers are catering to now," says
  Palta. And that demand comes from professionals as well as from
  nostalgia-driven collectors for whom the typewriter represents a
  magical piece of the past.

  Palta has painstakingly restored century-old typewriters for people
  from across the country. Like vintage cars, a typewriter's value
  skyrockets only when it is fully functional, he says, but restoration
  often involves great attention to detail, and it can be tricky.  "A
  refrigerator is huge in comparison but has only one-tenth of the parts
  of the manual typewriter," he says.

  Sometimes, spare parts for specific models are unavailable because
  manufacturing has ceased. In these cases, Palta specialises in
  outsourcing the production of any spares that clients may require to
  repair their machines. But the parts need to be perfectly made. "If the
  typewriter's parts aren't properly fitted, it won't work," he says.
  Often, a single missing component can cost 10 times its original price
  to manufacture and replace.

  Palta also issues an age certificate for every machine he sells, though
  this can often involve some degree of sleuthing. "Each typewriter has a
  unique serial number embossed on the body of the machine, like the
  engine number of a vehicle. We refer to online portals and check for
  the date in which the serial number is issued," he says.

  Some of Palta's regular clients are avid collectors, and have been
  sending him machines to restore for years. One such client is Maharaja
  Jayendra Pratap Singh, a member of the [31]former royal family of
  Balrampur in the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He has 11
  typewriters in his collection – including a couple of Godrej Prima, a
  Lettera 32 and a rare model of Hindi typewriter that belonged to his
  aunt and was in use in the 1950s.
  In India, vintage typewriters are highly prized – and some brands are
  collector's items (Credit: Maharaja Jayrendra Pratap Singh)

  In India, vintage typewriters are highly prized – and some brands are
  collector's items (Credit: Maharaja Jayrendra Pratap Singh)

  Singh's love for typing began when he helped his father with his
  correspondence, but he soon realised that a computer's easy access to
  spell-check could make for lazy penmanship. He transitioned to the
  typewriter because he wanted to improve his creative writing skills and
  bought his first one, an [32]Olympia, in 2013.

  "Initially, it was difficult to learn to type on it," says Singh.
  Getting the alignment of the letters right was a challenge and it took
  him nearly a year of practice to learn to type proficiently. Today, he
  uses the typewriter for his personal correspondence and to note down
  the minutes of business meetings. After the festival of Raksha Bhandan
  this year (falling on August 11, where the sister ties a sacred thread
  on the brother's wrist to celebrate their bond as siblings), he typed a
  personal note to each of his sisters, whom he says were very touched.
  "I love the impression of the letters on paper – computer printing is
  never the same. A type-written note makes everything more special,"
  Singh says.

  For creative writers, the typewriter is a means to quell wayward
  thoughts, and block the distractions that the digital world may bring,
  as they will their ideas to march to the dance of their fingertips.

  But for many professionals in India, learning to type on old machines
  isn't as romantic. Typewriters can be relentless and unforgiving –
  often there is no scope for correction. Making a single mistake would
  mean that the work needs to be re-done, says Jeyaram Viswanathan, who
  runs a Human Resources consultancy in the Southern Indian city of
  Coimbatore. Viswanathan started his professional life in 1979, as a
  stenographer for a local chemical company. Much of his work involved
  typing out documents manually.

For senior citizens living in India, the typewriter remains a source of deep
nostalgia

  "We used a specialised eraser [when we made a mistake] – it was bright
  turquoise, round with a hole in it – that could help with minor
  corrections," says Viswanathan. "But if you rub too hard, you'll end up
  with a hole in the paper."

  However, errors are few and far between for trained professional
  typists, says Bhaskaran. "Our students can't pass the exam if they make
  a single error. Learning to type on a typewriter teaches you accuracy."

  And there's another more pressing reason that Indian bureaucracy still
  doggedly sticks with typewriters: records are more permanent.
  Typewriting lasts. "Certain important government documents are still
  typewritten because the ink never fades, unlike computerized
  printouts," says Murugavel Prakash, who trains 300 students in typing
  at the Sri Krishna typing institute that he runs in Madurantakam, near
  the Southern Indian city of Chennai.
  In India, acquiring typewriting skills can help people to be more
  employable (Credit: Murugavel Prakash/Sri Krishna Typing Institute)

  In India, acquiring typewriting skills can help people to be more
  employable (Credit: Murugavel Prakash/Sri Krishna Typing Institute)

  Prakash left a university job as an assistant professor in civil
  engineering after his father passed away in 2012, to take over the
  reins of the institute. It was started by his uncle in 1954 and
  currently has 80 machines, mostly Godrej Prima and Remington 14s. He
  and his wife offer hourly sessions through the day from 7am to 8pm.
  After being overwhelmed with requests during successive coronavirus
  lockdowns, he even started a [33]Youtube channel to help the housebound
  learn more about typing.

  One of the most prominent areas where manual typewriters had been
  employed in the past were outside the country's courtrooms, where legal
  documents were typed out and often translated into Indian languages.
  Across the country, an estimated 2,000 typists sat outside courts in
  2014, their typewriters sheathed in tarpaulins and often left
  unattended under the shade of big banyan trees. The cities of Kolkata
  and Delhi are particularly well-known for their court typists. They
  made it possible for litigants to have instant access to paperwork,
  particularly handy when there were power outages, which were frequent
  in the past.

  However, recent years have seen [34]a steep decline in these numbers,
  says Palta, though courtroom typists still exist. "There used to be a
  thousand typists outside the chambers of court in Delhi, but today,
  that number is just 14 or 15," says Palta.  While many predicted that
  this [35]decline in court typists would mean the death of all
  typewriters too, the tradition of manual typewriting in India still
  survives.

  Perhaps because the typewriter has been so inextricably tied with
  iconic moments in Indian legal and political history, it's unlikely to
  fade from the public consciousness anytime soon. One example is the
  machine's role in the [36]Bhawal Sanyasi case – one of India's most
  notorious and melodramatic of criminal conspiracies.

  On August 25, 1936, in what is now modern-day Dhakka, Bangladesh,
  Additional Districts and Sessions Judge Pannalal Bose got ready to
  deliver a verdict for a case that had relentlessly gripped the
  attention of pre-independent India.
  There are still a large number of court typists in India, who sit
  outside legal offices and type up case notes on their typewriters
  (Credit: Alamy)

  There are still a large number of court typists in India, who sit
  outside legal offices and type up case notes on their typewriters
  (Credit: Alamy)

  It's easy to see why the case received such attention – it had all the
  elements of a wild, unforgettable potboiler. A decade after Ramendra
  Narayan Roy, the prince of Bhawal – one of the largest and wealthiest
  estates in Bengal (now Bangladesh) – died of poisoning, people
  whispered about his mysterious reappearance. A man who looked exactly
  like him had resurfaced near the estate, but he had no memories of his
  former royal life. Instead, he was a sanyasi, a holy man believed to
  have renounced the world.

  Rumours had been swirling since his death about how a hailstorm had
  prevented his funeral. Those involved in the cremation had reportedly
  been compelled to take refuge from this sudden downpour, only to find
  that the body had gone missing. With the wife refusing to acknowledge
  the sanyasi as her late husband, and later challenging him in court as
  an imposter, the case went down in history for its notoriety.

  Judge Bose [37]famously locked himself away for three months, to
  deliberate over and type out the 531 page judgement himself, word for
  captivating word, on a Remington Rand Portable[38], which his family
  has since preserved. When he declared that there was no proof of Roy's
  earlier death and ruled that the sanyasi was indeed the young prince,
  the judge, who faced threats to his safety, had to flee to Kolkata with
  his wife and his eleven children. Among his possessions was the
  typewriter that recorded the judgement. (To add to the mystery, two
  days after the judgement was ruled in his favour, the sanyasi-prince
  died after visiting a temple to give thanks.)

  For senior citizens living in India, the typewriter remains a source of
  deep nostalgia.

  In November 2019, months before Covid-19 gripped the country, Palta
  restored a 90-year-old typewriter for a family in the Southern Indian
  state of Karnataka. It was in bad shape when it was sent to him, broken
  and rusted, he says. The family was so delighted that he'd been able to
  fully restore it, they sent him a [39]photograph with the typewriter on
  their laps as they sat around a sofa. The caption read "Glad to have
  our family member back home with us."

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