telegraph master he says hesitant to take his eyes off the monitor like most others the 55yearold kalyan resident has worked here for three decades and is readying to join bsnls broadband office in kalyan starting next week a printer that sits beside his monitor works nonstop printing out telegramaftertelegram including one that claims someone is hosting a farewell to the telegram party others are stern and official in tone deshmukh says several banks still use telegrams referring to the less than 5000 messages that are sent across the country every day especially when they communicate with loan or creditcard defaulters because even today courts accept our records as unequivocal proof that a message was deliveredthe phonogram sisters the phonogram sisters isnt the name of a band although this team of three had its share of lyrics to memorise over the years weve been in the phonogram department from the start says 54yearold bharati mehta who has for 35 years together with colleagues harsha ghuntla and kalyani redich taking down messages dictated over the phone through a local call made to the cto the nature of their job required that they decipher messages delivered in assorted accents in the old days there were over 100 employees in this section mehta recalls they are now down to fivethe kadakata duo two morse code machines sit atop stools on one side of a room this office was once where hemlata chavan and anagha khambet received and transmitted morse code messages after they had completed a ninemonthlong training 33 years ago we earned a stipend of rs 130 a month chavan giggles it was a method of transmitting complex text across telegraph wires as a series of onoff tunes or clicks with each alphabet or numeral denoted as a standardized sequence of dots and dashes or dits and dahs a request to spell out mumbai on the machines is received like a gunshot at the start of a race the ladies suddenly break into a chant katakatakadakadakatakadakada seconds into it recognising the confusion on our faces chavan explains kata is a dash kada is a dot before they could send a message the ladies say they had to relay the words are you getting me and wait for a confirmation although the machines still tap out a clickclick when the two demonstrate their use chavan exchanges a knowing look with khambet who says these dont work anymore it wasnt like this at all