Click, clack, ding! The end of the typewriter

The loud click-clack of typewriters, already fading away as offices embrace computer, is now destined to fall silent.

Godrej and Boyce, the country’s only remaining seller of manual typewriters have only 200 pieces left for sale. The company is believed to be the world’s last ‘Office Typewriter’ manufacturers. Many government offices and police stations, that still use typewriters, will now have to buy typewriters from auctions.

Gajanan Satam, a typewriter mechanic working at Mantralaya, the state government headquarters, remembers that when he joined work in 1981, there were 35 such workers. Now there are only 5. “I suppose that after 10 years when the last mechanic retires, there will be no typewriters to service,” said Satam.

Started in 1955, Godrej’s manufacturing unit in Shirwal, Satara was the first in Asia to produce typewriters. Then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru as one more step towards the country’s industrialisation. During the peak demand in the early nineties, the company produced about 50,000 typewriters annually. The company shut down production in 2009 because of diminishing demand, said Vinay Dukle, general manager (operations) of Godrej Prima, Godrej and Boyce.

Godrej was one of the several brands in the Indian market, besides the now-defunct Underwood, Hermis and Remington.   

The few remaining typewriters are kept as relics. “I started using a typewriter first when I was 17. At that time I was fond of writing and used it extensively. Now I use it once a week mostly to teach my grandchildren to type,” said 76-year-old Chembur resident, S Ganesan.

With offices replacing typewriters with computers, the demand for typewriting courses has also declined. Mumbai’s most famous secretarial institute, Nani Davar’s Secretarial College at Fountain, established 111 years ago, did away with typewriters completely around 10 years ago.

The institute does not offer typewriting courses anymore, but has a computer keyboard course for office workers who want to use their fingers faster.

Typing and shorthand writing, another obligatory skill once acquired by secretaries and personal assistants, is not a compulsory component of a secretarial course. “Shorthand is still taught because some companies still insist that secretaries have a certain speed in taking down notes. But it is no longer compulsory. It is now possible to work as a personal assistant without these skills,” said Lalitha Iyer,” a senior executive at Davar’s.