Soon after I got married in January 1981, my mother-in-law went to The Netherlands and brought a beautiful Remington Sparry portable typewriter for me as a sort of wedding gift since my marriage was solemnised by Allahabad District Magistrate Bhure Lal who later became well known as V. P. Singh’s trusted bureaucrat. A month later, United News of India (UNI) advertised for trainee sub-editors and I applied. I sat for a written test and was called for the interview. My friends in UNI had told me that one must know how to type to become a journalist. So I tried to learn it with the help of my wife Indu Agnihotri but could not get very far. So, when UNI’s General Manager and Chief Editor G. G. Mirchandani asked me if I knew how to type, I almost lied and replied in the affirmative, adding that my speed was very low. He said, “ Don’t worry, you will pick up.” And, I got selected. Thus, my new acquisition helped me get a job in journalism.
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Mirchandani encouraged desk persons to do reporting in their free time. So, I began to file reports and typed all of them on my typewriter. After I was picked up by Vinod Mehta for The Sunday Observer, it was continuously used as we did not have an office in Delhi. I travelled through Punjab during the 1980s and wrote all my reports on it. My career as a field reporter was over by mid-1990s, and laptop computers were yet to make their appearance. So, my portable typewriter was always my constant companion. Even today, it is in perfect condition. I yearn to use it, but cannot. The Digital Age has crushed it.
