Monday, September 10, 2012

TYPEWRITING AND SHORTHAND INSTITUTES IN KGF - THE END OF AN ERA

There were quite a few Typewriting and Short Hand  Institutes in KGF during the 1970s till the early 1990s.  The Vani Vilas Typewriting Institute, Neo Typewriting Institute, Rao’s Institute, Venkateswara Institute of Commerce, etc. in Robertsonpet and other places in KGF were some of them. These Institutes conducted Typewriting and Short Hand Classes in several batches a day of one hour’s duration and prepared students for careers as secretaries, clerks etc.  One could hear the very distinctive sound of the old Manual typewriters going ‘clackety-clack’ with so many students pounding on the keys at varying speeds throughout the day in these Typewriting Institutes.
 Learning Short Hand and Typing was synonymous with the desire of the middleclass in those times as a means of better job prospects. The Certificates one obtained after appearing for the Government Exams in Shorthand and Typewriting served as a ticket to jobs in the Public Sector and Government undertakings.


I also attended Typewriting and Shorthand Classes at the Neo Commerce Institute in Robertsonpet, as additional qualifications apart from my B A Degree.  I attended these classes in the evenings after returning from College.  The Institute was owned by Mr. Palani, whose son Prakash was our classmate in College. The Instructors and teachers in the Institute were quite good and prepared us for the Junior and Senior Government Examinations in both Typewriting and Shorthand. I still remember my Pitman’s Shorthand and found it of great use all these years.  In fact my having passed the Senior Typewriting and Short Hand Government Examinations was one of the Plus Points on my own Resume along with my BA and B Ed Degrees!!

Sadly these Institutes had to shut down in the last decade due to the onset of the Information Technology Era. The old manual Typewriters died a natural death, once Computers came into existence. While some of these Typewriting Institutes moved with the times and turned into Computer Education Institutes and Internet Cafes or Browsing Centers, some of them had to shut down as they couldn’t afford to invest in Computers and other equipment. Thus another aspect of our earlier lives also came to an end.

1 comment:

  1. my mother RAJAKANIE studied in st josephs convent kolar from 1950 to 1960, i am trying to contact her classmates/friends. please help me . yashodha
    my email is yashodhadevraj@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete

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