Telegram services in India shuts down on July 14

[Sushubh]

I am 31 and I do not remember using it once in my life.

India is the last country in the world to use the telegram on such a large scale, but officials said the service, operated by the government-owned telecom firm BSNL, had run up losses of more than £2billion and the government stated it was no longer willing to bear the cost for what had become "nostalgia".

https://goo.gl/4q1rr

 

[vishal1082]

The headline is stupid : (DNA)

 

[Sushubh]

The entire mainstream media is a joke these days.

 

[SVK]

One of my friend said that his father works in Rail dept. And to apply leave from out-station, they have to send telegram even now. Not sure what would they do now

BTW I too never used it in 31 years of my age

Many people/relatives I know relate telegram to bad news (like death in family).

 

[Sushubh]

Many people/relatives I know relate telegram to bad news (like death in family).

Righto. I remember this aspect. But this is probably from the times when people did not have phones in their houses.Or maybe when you did not want to call 100s of your relatives and inform them of the news. :

 

[fiberguy]

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1847365/report-it-s-curtains-for-the-humble-telegram
http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/singly-political/2013/06/14/an-ode-to-the-telegram/
I remember as a kid once I used telegram for a school project. That was my first and last experience with it!

 

[experience]

Yeah. I too have bought that telegram thing many times for my school projects but never used actually. 25 words limit and each extra word was chargeable. Fcuk, they even used to give telegram in hindi and english exams for 8-10 marks each :/

 

[Sushubh]

I am personally not sure why they cost that much. Today, you can just transmit the message using SMS or Internet so the delivery charges are negligible. Rest has to be managed by regular postman who still exist.

 

[itzmynet]

 

[ashish]

telegram was an important tool in the early 80's in places were landlines had not penetrated. i have faint memories of my family receiving and transmitting telegram to the native place
in last 25 years i haven't seen anybody using telegram personally. it should have been discarded a decade ago