<p>Typing institutes boomed in Madras in the 1960s. School students those days made a beeline to typing institutes the very day after they wrote the last paper of their SSLC examinations. The day I joined the typing school the instructor led me to an old bare-chested Underwood Champion typewriter. It looked like an old sick man sitting on a hospital bed counting his ribs and days.</p>.<p>Typewriters set aside by typing institutes for beginners were just like driving school cars- old and run-down. Type bars are supposed to rise from the well one at a time. In the case of my vantage typewriter, it was two at a time at times three at a time also. This resulted in type- bars getting entangled with one another often. I had to disengage them like a referee who separates wrestlers in a boxing ring.</p>.<p>Even as I started the first lesson asdfgf ;lkjhj my left middle finger got caught between keys of d and f. Hearing my ‘ouch’, the instructor came running to me. While extricating my finger, he told me sarcastically, “You should type without not only looking at the keys but also at the girls.”</p>.<p>He was obviously biased. When it came to me, “All your fingers are thumbs,” he hissed, but when it came to the girl sitting next to me, he would say: “What nimble and long fingers you possess! Learn Veena you will be a great Veena Vidwan like Chittibabu”.</p>.<p>Whenever a comely girl joined our school a dozen boys crossed over to our school from rival ones. While there were many girls who made many heads of boys turn, there was a boy named Kannan who made the ears of many girls of our institute prick up when he walked in and started typing at hurricane speed.</p>.<p>“It is like standing under a rail bridge when an express train is hurtling overhead,” a girl raved. “He is typing like lightning,” another extolled. He became a bigger hero when he won the Sarasvati Pooja annual typing race and received a standing ovation from girls. I learnt my first lesson in women’s psychology: Boys fall down for appearance and girls stand up for performance.</p>.<p>Those days, boys went to boys’ schools and girls went to girls’ schools. No school was ready to seat fire and cotton next to one another. At typing institutes, boys got an opportunity to sit next to girls. Typewriting institutes were known those days as fertile grounds for teenage romances most of which, of course, just withered off or got nipped in the bud.</p>.<p>The whole world might have forgotten typewriters but I have not. They helped me a lot when I was a budding writer. I join the very few who observe World Typewriter Day on June 23 every year by tilting my hat to Halda, Remington and Godrej.</p>
<p>Typing institutes boomed in Madras in the 1960s. School students those days made a beeline to typing institutes the very day after they wrote the last paper of their SSLC examinations. The day I joined the typing school the instructor led me to an old bare-chested Underwood Champion typewriter. It looked like an old sick man sitting on a hospital bed counting his ribs and days.</p>.<p>Typewriters set aside by typing institutes for beginners were just like driving school cars- old and run-down. Type bars are supposed to rise from the well one at a time. In the case of my vantage typewriter, it was two at a time at times three at a time also. This resulted in type- bars getting entangled with one another often. I had to disengage them like a referee who separates wrestlers in a boxing ring.</p>.<p>Even as I started the first lesson asdfgf ;lkjhj my left middle finger got caught between keys of d and f. Hearing my ‘ouch’, the instructor came running to me. While extricating my finger, he told me sarcastically, “You should type without not only looking at the keys but also at the girls.”</p>.<p>He was obviously biased. When it came to me, “All your fingers are thumbs,” he hissed, but when it came to the girl sitting next to me, he would say: “What nimble and long fingers you possess! Learn Veena you will be a great Veena Vidwan like Chittibabu”.</p>.<p>Whenever a comely girl joined our school a dozen boys crossed over to our school from rival ones. While there were many girls who made many heads of boys turn, there was a boy named Kannan who made the ears of many girls of our institute prick up when he walked in and started typing at hurricane speed.</p>.<p>“It is like standing under a rail bridge when an express train is hurtling overhead,” a girl raved. “He is typing like lightning,” another extolled. He became a bigger hero when he won the Sarasvati Pooja annual typing race and received a standing ovation from girls. I learnt my first lesson in women’s psychology: Boys fall down for appearance and girls stand up for performance.</p>.<p>Those days, boys went to boys’ schools and girls went to girls’ schools. No school was ready to seat fire and cotton next to one another. At typing institutes, boys got an opportunity to sit next to girls. Typewriting institutes were known those days as fertile grounds for teenage romances most of which, of course, just withered off or got nipped in the bud.</p>.<p>The whole world might have forgotten typewriters but I have not. They helped me a lot when I was a budding writer. I join the very few who observe World Typewriter Day on June 23 every year by tilting my hat to Halda, Remington and Godrej.</p>