Keying into the future from the past

Chennai, Feb 4: Picture this. A small typewriting institute in the neighbourhood with a motley crowd, mostly teenagers, furiously tapping the keyboard trying to master alphabets.

For gennext kids growing up with Thinkpads and Palmtops armed with wi-fi, the rugged typewriter is vintage. A relic of the Raj fit for coffee table book.

In a megapolis dotted with cyber cafes and noveau rich, one quickly tends to sing the requiem for the once ubiquitous typewriters.

But, scratch the surface and surprisingly the typewriter -- which feels more intimate than a blank screen and a blinking cursor-- is making a comeback.

In a city teeming with millions, hard numbers are certainly difficult to get on the numbers buying a machine.

A quick back of the hand calculation shows the cash registers are ringing.

Some pick up restored Remingtons, Halda and Facit in retail shops while others scour the second hand markets for a bargain deal.

A talk with typerwriter dealers reflect a recent 'shift' to younger customers overtaking the traditional collectors and diehard older generation which was never comfortable with modern age gizmos.

More than two-thirds of customers for typewriters and ribbons at TypeWri Sales and Services Emporium, leading multi-typewriter showroom in the city at Evening Baazar, are in their 20s and 30s, it proprietor K Elumalai told UNI. ''We sold about 800 typewriters in 2006-2007 alone compared to 500 in the previous financial year,'' he said adding there was also a 30 per cent increase in typewriter accessory sales.

For a generation raised on fast changing technology, there is something impressively permanent about a typewriter.

Those used to computers that often operate mysteriously and practically in silence, it comes as a breath of fresh air to use a machine as simple, practical and hardworking.

''It's similar to teens and 20 somethings choosing long playing records over MP3s and Ipods,'' said Ms K Vijayalakshmi, a college professor and a culture czar.

''A lot of young people who have only experienced digital, find the analog extremely appealing,'' said the professor noting a couple of her students have submitted typwritten papers.

'' Young people who choose typewriters are very careful about what they do when they put them on paper. It doesn't seem as disposable and casual.''

According to some interesting statistics from the Tamil Nadu Commerce Institute Association, an apex body in the state recognised by the government, some 70,000 candidates would appear for typewriting examinations this year compared to about 64,000 last year. According to Association President Santhana Krishnan surprisingly a mere 15,000 candidates appeared in Andhra Pradesh followed by Karnataka with 10,000 and Kerala with only 4,000 for the typewriting examinations.

For B Ramkumar, student of Loyola College, his typewriter holds a special place in his heart.

''Typewriting gives a postively perceptible experience. His ''noiseless'' 'Facit' churns out piles of papers and the ink has its own 'fragrance.' And when things aren't going well, Kumar, 28, pulls out the paper from the machine and crushes it which he said was 'really satisfying.' And you don't lose a document when you press the wrong key. Two cheers to the warhorse.

UNI