Two lines down the memory lane....

I too joined the millions of Indians in mourning the death of the of the telegram. Don't get me wrong. I have never received even a single telegram in my life time. Nor have I sent one. Yet I couldn't help but mourn when the usually eccentric radio jockey mellowed down, informing me about the death of the telegram. 

The first time I happened to see a telegram was after my father's death. No, it was not the one informing me about his death. Telephone was much faster by that time, even in the remote project site that my father used to work, telegram was the last thing that his friends would have thought of when they had the choice of booking a phone call.

All through my life, till the time my father died, he worked in that same remote but beautiful project site. The charms of the community life was still with me even after I shifted back to my hometown, along with my mother for my higher education. One fateful evening, a few years after we had relocated to our home town, we were informed that he had passed away. One of his friends rang us up to inform about his death. Telegram had become too slow by that time.

A week or so after his death we received all his stuff, neatly packed and sent to us by his beloved colleagues and friends. As I unpacked one memory after another I chanced upon a very old diary of his. In it were 3 or 4 of blue coloured inland letters. Along with those was a small white piece of paper folded into two.  It was dated 10-03-1979 and it read 

"Dearest brother,

Sameera gave birth to a baby boy today at 6.30 am. Both the mother and baby are fine."

I don't think I had been so struck after reading just two lines up until then. It was a telegram sent by my uncle informing my father about my birth.
Can words justify the emotions that I had when I saw that?

Two lines changed the way I remember my father. Ever since that time the lasting memory that I have of my father is of a face that lit up reading those two lines, even though I was not a witness to it.

Hearing to the radio jockey going through lot of stuff about the history of the telegram, the same face with the spontaneous joy in it comes to my mind. If my father were hearing the radio today, I am sure that he would be imagining me as a cute newborn lying beside my mother, who he was not fortunate enough to see while he was reading those two lines.

"Long live the telegram", the RJ declared. 

"Long live the E-mail" might be just around the corner. I wonder if someone will have stories of smiles to tell.

Fully knowing that it is not going to happen, I too join the millions in declaring
LONG LIVE THE TELEGRAM!!!!