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Forget Dodo, it's Dead as a Telegram

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Perhaps for the first time ever, staff at the Central Telegraph Office or CTO did not refuse people from booking a telegram citing end of working hours. On Sunday, the staff at the CTO was more than willing to accept telegram requests.

There was a constant trickle of people walking into the CTO wanting to be part of Indian telegram’s history. The crowd did not only comprised of individuals reacting to the news of closure of wire services but also auctioneers, numismatic and philately enthusiasts.

“I came to the CTO thinking sending just one telegram. But now I cannot stop. I do not have a count of how many I have booked,” said Kaizad Todywalla.

Even teenagers who had never booked or received or sent or seen a telegram came for the experience, to witness an era coming to an end. Just after booking one, some even micro-blogged of being the proud sender of a telegram.

Senior Telegraph Master, Operations, CN Deshmukh, who works in the back office of the CTO was busy tabulating statistics. Constantly busy on the phone, giving updates to his higher-ups, he kept updating forms and registers to maintain records. The CTO works till 8pm, but on Sunday the working hours were extended by an hour. Even after 9pm, the CTO hall was crowded and abuzz like never before. Finally, the doors to the world of telegram was shut to public at 10.15 pm. All other counters where mobile recharges and similar transactions usually happen were on Sunday converted to accept only telegram bookings.

Sadly, the machine that prints acknowledgement on the counterfoil (given to an individual who sends a telegram) was unable to take load of such high levels of bookings. The quick fix solution — issue manual receipts. At 10 pm, there were over 10,000 bookings with Deshmukh busy updating records well past midnight.

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