Telegrams are usually associated with the dreaded death messages. But in Madurai, telegrams had also saved lives.

“I could not recall the year exactly. A death convict was about to be taken to the gallows in the Central prison here. But his death sentence was reduced in the last moment and the verdict was sent through a telegram. We rushed to the prison and handed over the message to prison authorities saving the life of the prisoner,” said S Mayandi, a telegram messenger.

“Not only that. We were the vital link during disasters like cyclones. Alert messages and flood warning were sent through telegrams till telephone was introduced. During the cyclone in 1964 at Dhanushkodi telegrams were the primary tool of communication,” recalled Nammalvar, who retired in 2001 as chief telegraph master.

Nammalvar says that they used to get weather reports from Kodaikanal observatory and send them to Chennai regularly based on which disaster management plans would be devised. “I remember even many journalists sending their reports to their offices through telegram,” he said.

Mayandi said that they used to deliver up to 500 telegrams everyday between 1980 and 1990, the peak period in telegram usage in Madurai. “During wedding season we would even get 1,000 telegrams,” he recalls. Besides death and “keep body” messages informing to postpone cremation till a close relative arrives, messages on child births, transfers, extension of leave were also sent. “We used to cycle for miles in the dark of night to deliver the messages,” says Pandian, a telegraphist. “Money was also transferred through telegrams,” he added.

“The ‘kat kada’ sound of the morse code machine used to reverberate round-the-clock in the telegraph office until teleprinters came. Sending messages using morse code is itself a great skill,” said M Periayasamy. He said that they had to undergo an eight month-long course to learn the code.

Even as the employees reminisce the past, there seems to be a sense of melancholy as the days of telegraph has come to an end. “Telegraph is a service. Government should not look at it as a business venture and shut it down as there is no profit,” sais S Sooryan, district secretary of BSNL Employees Union.

source::::::Times of India

natarajan