our generation well remembers telegrams vividly. those were the days when there was no internet, no emails, no whatsapp or any other social media for instant communication. any urgent message was necessarily to be sent telegraphicaly. one needed to rush to the nearest telegraph office to book a telegram. the message is then meticulously sent by an employee by morse code. we can recollect the the unique "tak-tak-taak-tak-taak" tapping sound of the morse code tapper when we entered the telegraph office. express, ordinary and greetings telegrams were the 3 types we could make use of depending on the need. as the charges depended on the number of words in the message, efforts were made by everyone to shorten the message without distorting the essence. this was called very aptly "telegraphic language" i recollect an incident that happened 30-35 years ago . i wanted to visit nizamabad for field work with our medical representative, mr.chandrasekhar. so i wanted to send him a telegram informing about my visit. i went to a telegraph office in khairatabad, hyderabad. i duly filled a form and handed it over to official at the counter. i noticed that he had a startled look on his face after reading message in my telegram. he had a quizzical look on his face and looked up and down at me several times before going ahead with making out a receipt for me. i suddenly realised that the reason for his behaviour was the message in my telegram which read "arriving tonight ajanta. book kapila. meet tomorrow morning."
ajanta express was the train i was planning to take in the evening that day to reach nizamabad by about 9.00pm
kapila hotel was where i planned to stay hence room booking was required
next morning meeting was because i didn't want to disturb mr.chandrasekhar at a late hour (as my arrival in nizamabad was going to be after 9 in the night
the message was misunderstood by the telegraph official. having noticed his surprise, i tried to clarify to him the meaning behind my message. i don't know to date if my explanation satisfied hi
a similar anecdote appeared in another whatsapp group of which i am a member. i am reproducing the same below. the raconteur is one mr.upadhyayula narayanadas who worked for gsk. the story went like thi
when our colleague sri aravamudu joined the company (glaxo), he was sent to tenali, a newly established head quarters for stationing it's medical representative. tenali is also called 'andhra paris.' when he left madras for tenali, he was given details about the company dealer and told that this dealer could help him with staying arrangements in tenali upon his arriva
he got off the train with his luggage and engaged a cycle rickshaw to take him to lakshmi & company (the dealer) the rickshaw puller did not hear 'and' but only heard it as 'lakshmi company' (name of a brothel) the rickshaw puller with a wide grin on his face replied “there are even better companies than that. i will take you, don't worry, sir!"l.s:m ).. worry, sir!"
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