On telegram's end : link with Beethoven, Ray and the Tagores

Yesterday was the day when telegram service stopped in India. The title of this blog suggests there is a common link between Beethoven’s Fifth symphony, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali and the Tagores. That link is telegram. Kishore Chatterji, the great western classical music connoisseur suggested me once that the opening movement of Beethoven’s Fifth symphony reminds one of dot-dot-dot-dash, the Morse code. I am attaching the youtube video for your perusal.

Then in Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali, Apu and Durga run in the field to see a rail train for the first time. Before they reach to see the locomotive they are puzzled by the humming of the telegraph post which was so nicely captured by the master. Readers are requested to see the following to realize what am I talking about. Somehow the video could not be uploaded, hence I copy the link here for your perusal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-JWZDALouI

 

Another anecdote is from Ranjan Bandyopadhyay’s article in Robibashoriyo in Ananadabazar Potrika published about a decade ago . Maharshi Debendranath Tagore sent his eldest son Dwijendranath to handle zamindari in Bengal villages. Dwijoo babu got upset by abject poverty of his subjects and thought of helping by money. He sent a telegram to his father “ Send fifty thousand (50,000)”…Understanding his son’s inability to realize ways of the world, Debendranath replied in another telegram “ Come back soon”.

I remember another Bengali movie Dak Diye Jai where the postmaster delivers a telegram declaring a villager’s death. When the family is still mourning another telegram comes wherein it stated that the last telegram be ignored please and the villager is very much alive. This brings joy back to the family.

There will be some more references of telegrams from cinemas of yesteryear. I don’t remember all. Maybe one can be from Postmaster of Ray or Aparajito of Ray. But I don’t recollect these. I wrote about those which I remember quite well about telegrams.