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Is learning shorthand and Typewriting relevant now?

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[h=2]Technology may have advanced, but Balasubramanian still finds shorthand and typewriting relevant[/h] At a time when technology has taken over our lives, N.R. Balasubramanian still has a lot of faith in stenography, typewriting and shorthand. He says they can be useful for those who wish to have an edge over others. His institute in Ambattur – Sri Mathurambika Supreme Shorthand Centre — has more than 50 students taking lessons in these skills.


A former senior private secretary at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), he has been teaching shorthand and typewriting since 1988. “I started teaching as a hobby. Then in 1992, I started conducting proper classes. My wife, Ponnammal, was taking care of the entire operations and I would chip in regularly. However, being a government employee, I needed permission to conduct classes like these. Only after getting the permission did I started teaching. After retiring in 2005, I started teaching full-time,” says 71-year-old Balasubramanian, who is extremely passionate about the skills. “I learnt shorthand in 1962 in Kumbhakonnam and it helped me clear tough examinations.”


Ask him about the relevance of shorthand and typewriting today, when everything is just a click away, he says, “My granddaughter plays on her iPad, but I am still giving her training in typewriting. For those who know typewriting, using any kind of keyboard becomes easy and they type faster as well. In the case of shorthand, it can help you take notes even without looking at the notebook and produce it verbatim.”


Balasubramanian also takes Hindi classes (spoken and written) and Sanskrit. Sri Mathurambika Supreme Shorthand Centre is located at Vijayalakshmipuram, Ambattur. For details, call 26573830.

Outdated? Not yet! - The Hindu
 
Russia cracks down on internet, returns to typewriters

Russia is drawing its lessons from Edward Snowden’s disclosures about the United States’ massive electronic spying programmes, with security services switching to old-fashioned typewriters to prevent leaks and the government seeking to tighten control over the Internet.

The Federal Guards Service FSO, in charge of protecting Russia’s top leadership, has placed an order for 20 electric typewriters that would be used instead of computers to prepare top-secret documents, a Russian daily reported quoting a FSO source.

“Following scandals with the publication of secret documents by WikiLeaks, the revelations by Edward Snowden [and] reports about [then President] Dmitry Medvedev being snooped upon during his visit to the G20 summit in London, decision has been taken to expand the practice of creating paper documents,” the FSO official told the Izvestia daily.

Some Russian government agencies, including the Ministry of Defence, the Emergency Situations Ministry and secret services, have never stopped using typewriters for security purposes, the paper said.

Read more at: Russia cracks down on internet, returns to typewriters - The Hindu
 
Till the 90's shorthand and typing fetched clerical jobs...21st century it does not get you jobs but will help you in your current job esp Managerial to be efficient at work....

I am in the habit of typing with 2 fingers..I feel sorry that I did not learn typing

I tried typing using all my fingers but I gave up!
 
Sir,

I studied and passed these twin arts in fact both Tamil and English Typewriting and Shorthand way back in 1969 & 1970.

This Pitman’s shorthand also called as ‘winged art’ has proved more useful to me to take notes during senior Officers Meetings and to prepare the Minutes later.

In typewriting, I use respective fingers whle typing and still maintain the speed since I am in touch. Only thing is, in Laptop it is quite difficult to maintain the speed bcos the key board slightly differ from the standard typewriter keyboard.


Learning these twin arts has helped me in lot of ways in my career.

These technologies which are considered obsolete still serve their purpose due to their uniqueness.
 
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Sir,

I studied and passed these twin arts in fact both Tamil and English Typewriting and Shorthand way back in 1969 & 1970.

This Pitman’s shorthand also called as ‘winged art’ has proved more useful to me to take notes during senior Officers Meetings and to prepare the Minutes later.

In typewriting, I use respective fingers whle typing and still maintain the speed since I am in touch. Only thing is, in Laptop it is quite difficult to maintain the speed bcos the key board slightly differ from the standard typewriter keyboard.


Learning these twin arts has helped me in lot of ways in my career.

These technologies which are considered obsolete still serve their purpose due to their uniqueness.

Dear VB,

I had the privilege of teaching the art of Shorthand in a private institute around |Lord Parthasarathy Temple, Triplicane during 1979-91 though I belong to Kumbakonam, the temple city of India. Fortunately several of our students got through the Shorthand Examinations with distinction in STATE FIRSTS besides number of first classes. The credit first goes both to the students who are mostly from upper caste sections and then to the teaching three Masters(Lower,Intermediate,Higher) sometimes English High Speed examinations who dedicated themselves to the cause of Shorthand and are also from upper caste.

Coming to the point of relevancy, now-a-days, there is no good dictator who desires to dictate his original thinking to the Shorthand Writer in office or wherever the forum. Therefore, the Art got diminished thereby losing its importance and strength. What a lovable and challenging art where the shorthand writer has got the proficiency equivalent to that of Dictator with an outstanding vocabulary. Sorry to say, probably this wonderful art invented by Sir Isaac Pitman in 1827 (I forgot the year )may disappear in due course.
 
Till the 90's shorthand and typing fetched clerical jobs...21st century it does not get you jobs but will help you in your current job esp Managerial to be efficient at work....

I am in the habit of typing with 2 fingers..I feel sorry that I did not learn typing

I tried typing using all my fingers but I gave up!
hi

i learned short hand/english typewriting after my high school....i was not able to attend the govt exam...even i learned

hindi typewriting in chennai....in punjabi school near royapettah.....i never completed....
 
I attended typewriting classes much against the advice of my Math prof, after completing Masters in Math!

After so many years, it is of so much help to type posts in our forum at a good speed! :)

P.S: My friends used to ask me whether I see the keyboard or the PC screen while typing.

I see the P C screen and never the keyboard! :cool:
 
hi

generally typewriting/shorthand was bread winner many tambhram families in 70s and 80s....i know many stories abt it....many

opalakkad brahmin boys....after finshing SSLC...learning typewriting/shorthand....take a train from olavakode jn to kalyan....

ended up in maatunga/chembur in bombay...then joining as typist/stenograhper in any small company...starting as career...

then family and kids settledown slowly....this is real middle class brahmin family stories.....
 
hi

generally typewriting/shorthand was bread winner many tambhram families in 70s and 80s....i know many stories abt it....many

opalakkad brahmin boys....after finshing SSLC...learning typewriting/shorthand....take a train from olavakode jn to kalyan....

ended up in maatunga/chembur in bombay...then joining as typist/stenograhper in any small company...starting as career...

then family and kids settledown slowly....this is real middle class brahmin family stories.....

Hi,
I agree with you cent percent. I had the privilege of taking care of Unlcle's Shorthand Institute at Pollachi during 1965 where the students from our community evinced more interest to equip themselves in the twin arts in order to board a train to then Bombay to eke out their livelihood. As Palakad is very near to Pollachi has both bus transport as well as train, besides Pollachi is bigger town than the Tiny Palakad, students throng Pollachi for everything and no exaggeration at all. They also invited me to join them but I couldn't because first point that I don't know Hindi second have no relatives to stay in a new place. But my destination was destined by Planet Lord Sun to land me in Secretariat. Of course, no regret at all by the grace of God and retired with strong designation peacefully.
 
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Great subject. Of course, knowledge of typewriting & shorthand have phenomenal advantage. No doubt. Back in 1980 in Trivandrum, I started with typewriting classes in an institute and later started catching up with stenography. Those days, it was a serious business and we use to learn and practice it the hard way !! Stenography is something which the speed diminish after few years if one is not constantly in touch - but typewriting is something where the speed is maintained/ improved whether one work as a typist or not !! I work with a law firm in delhi and keep preaching the young lawyers to learn the art of typewriting (many of them actually sit and blink at the speed at which I go around with the keyboard). My two teenage daughters - use two fingers for tapping the keypads and use thumb to hold the gadgets...
 
Hi,
From 1955 onwards till 1970, the community was either under-want or wanting under the caption Cook, Prohit, Teacher & Clerk. In order to get over this social stigma, the elders of the community swam against the hard storm and got over the stigma which made their wards to become Engineers, Lawyers, Doctors and Bureaucrats. It was only a humbly beginning of the community that made them to choose the Twin Arts among others for the survival to start with. Subsequently, those guys became stalwarts and business magnets in their respective fields. During that point of time the community does not have a large number of affordable sections. Why I am saying this is that generally the community is predominantly under the caption middle class except a few.
 
Typing and shorthand were the twin pillars of support for the Tambrahm till the 90's...Come Computers in the 90's and the pillar shifted to IT coding...

However those interested may try the typing tests available in the net as typing is still beneficial even now

A sample below:

Typing Test English - 10FastFingers.com
 
hi

i like add more...ENGLISH WAS STRONG SUBJECT FOR MIDDLE CLASS TAMBRAHMS...i remember..when 70s and 80s....when we

practice typewriting/shorthand....HINDU NEWS PAPER HELPED A LOT....we have to read news paper daily..especially editorial...

the try to type/shorthand the same topic....so we tabrams inproved english a lot...when compare to other communities

in tamil nadu....once upon a time ..we had great english teachers with strong grammatical usages...now everything gone...
 
hi

i like to add more....in 70s and 80s...many tanbhram love starts in typewriting or temple....gals are generally go to alone ONLY

to typewriting institute or temple...SO ONLY THESE PLACES BEST PLACE FOR LOVVU ACTIVITIES....i know many love stories

started in typewriting institutes...the best example ...the famous ever green movie VIDHI....acted by mohan ...i forgot heroine

name...a middle class tamil brahmin story....i think MANORAMA is the typewriting institute owner,,,nice movie,,i saw many times..

even my mom likes this movie very much....
 
TBS ji you have such worldly knowledge and such powerful imagination, you should be a film script writer. RR ji can supply the songs, though I am not sure if she will agree to an item song or not.
 
In my father's book collection there were a few "Greg(g) short hand - learning and exercises" books; not sure whether my father or grandfather used them. Perhaps arrival of 'pitman shorthand' wiped out gregg shorthand.

The earliest printed book in may father's collection was 'Spherical astronomy' printed in 1837.
 
Shorthand is back, set for a long haul

CHENNAI: As S Parasuraman read rapidly from a tattered text, the class bent over their notebooks and scribbled what seemed like doodles. A closer look revealed that these dots, dashes and curves are a language of record for these students, some as old as 50. For senior stenographer Parasuraman, hearing over a dozen pens scratch paper was pure nostalgia.

"Till four years ago we had just four students for our short-hand courses. We now have about 20. It feels like the old days when this class was vibrant, when stenography was part of our culture and when knowing it was a bonus in many professions," said Parasuraman. Seen as anachronistic scribbles till a few years ago, shorthand writing is regaining its lost sheen, and there are many who vouch for it.

Students flocking to Stenographers' Guild in T Nagar have different reasons for enrolling in the classes that the non-profit organisation provides - many of them wished to secure a government job, some had joined to improve their prospects at work, and some others were plain curious.

Read more at: Shorthand is back, set for a long haul - The Times of India
 
In my father's book collection there were a few "Greg(g) short hand - learning and exercises" books;

Sir,


If I remember right, during 60s & 70s, candidates appearing for Shorthand English Lower/Higher Grade Examinations will be issued with Question papers with an annexure of text material prepared in shorthand following three recognised systems by the Tamil Nadu Government viz.

(1) Pitman System
(2) Gregg System
(3) Sloan-Duployan System

Candidate can choose the system followed by him and translate the shorthand text into longhand. I think Pitman system was most widely taught and practiced then and now.
 
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hi ... SO ONLY THESE PLACES BEST PLACE FOR LOVVU ACTIVITIES....

Hi,

For sharing only.

When I started learning
English and Tamil Typewriting sometime during 1962, the fee was just Rs.2/- and Rs.3/- respectively.When I started teaching Shorthand the fee was Rs.10/- per student. In order to encourage poor students irrespective of caste, creed and religion, they were admitted at free and were issued with shorthand text book (Pitman) at free of cost .

During the shorthand introduction class, the Institute will prevail upon the students, the importance of English shorthand in particular and enlighten them that if they get over the prescribed examination, they can stand on their own legs and face the challenges of life with more confidence.

The students of both sex who desire to learn shorthand would definitely be in their teens and are thus generally mischievous. As mentioned, the infatuation or love affair may start within the compound but the Masters won’t interfere in such activities as it is nature’s urge, unless it damages the reputation of the institute. In order to overcome the mischievous attitude of the naughty youngsters, Masters used to ask them to write the correct shorthand outlines of words in usage in the black-board i.e., ‘concomitant’, ‘erstwhile’ and so on and so forth besides their meaning and spelling politely with their own limitations. This method yielded good result and naughty students reduced their mischievous activities and thus became disciplined students concentrating more on the subject.

Moreover, passing the English Shorthand, Higher Grade Examination is one of the toughest proposition and the student should have to attend the institute at least for two years continuously without any break.

Generally, Masters used to mingle with students in their funny activities, naughty jokes and enjoy togetherness that made them feel younger, but the Masters know their limits and are more result-oriented always. It is incredible to record here that at one point of time, there were about 200 students in the attendance register for the shorthand sections alone and about 400 students in the typewriting section, probably during the vacation months i.e., April, May & June of every year. The owners of the institution would be very happy with students strength and used to celebrate the Saraswathy Pooja & Ayudha Pooja regularly in a grand manner by way of conducting quiz competition and other interesting programmes in a rented big hall every year combined with a nice feast and prize distributions to the achievers unmindful of the expenditure involved in other words an advertisement.

Those days have gone now and I was blessed to be one among the members of Team with immense satisfaction and my presence recognized as and when I go around area of Lord Parthasarathy Temple. I cherish my memory for ever and thank God to have bestowed me with this much of pleasure and satisfaction.
 
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Hi,

For sharing only.

Dear Dhikshita,

Well articulated...Similar stuff for me in the Hindi classes...We had a North Indian Hindi punditayin falling for a Tambrahm student...It was short lived as the guy got a job and he stopped attending the classes..I was just 15 years when this happened..So I could not see the entire stuff with salacious details..
 
hi

personally i had my own experiences...when i was hindi typewriting in chennai...the gal is studying typewriting with me...

we used to go to typewriting class together in cycle...but in long term....never materialised....we separated due to different

caste and family back ground....the story was some kind like KALYANA PARISU MOVIE.....look like gemini and savithri story..
 
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when I started my career as a gazetted officer in central govt . I was young and hot blooded. we had a pool of stenos and one attached to work for .

me. I thought I could try my skill at dictating a letter to be typed. when the pretty thing from south walked in and planted herself opposite me for

dictation , I got tongue tied . I kept staring at her assets and could not concentrate and dictate a few sentences. I gave up and changed my steno to

fat dark coloured male from kerala.lol
 
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