As denizens of the U.S., we are used to obsolescence: Yesterday's smartphone, we know will become a mere museum piece tomorrow. The furious pace of technology makes sure that obsolescence is like the air we breathe and the microbes we live with--a part of the scene, as it were.
But there might be certain parts of the world, where machinery, gadgets and modes of communication, might still be in use. When I think of India, my birth country, I think of the last few outposts of pre-technology existing side by side with frontiers of modern, cutting-edge technology.
So when I learnt that Indians will no longer be able to send telegrams, I was surprised. Electronic modes of communication are usurping even the last outposts of old-world communication culture, I thought.
A telegram deliverer said that he would miss delivering paper telegrams to houses, and fears that now he will be asked to serve tea and mop government office floors. Workers tied to the old industry would become unemployable junkets.
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