Photocopying: Sealdah and Ann Arbor.
People photocopy stuff all the time. Students, more so than other people, I imagine. Bad for the trees, and in the long term, bad for us. It would be nice if someone came up with a paper substitute which would also be easily biodegradable and clean. Meanwhile, this blog is about copying stuff. Back home, Xerox has become a substitute word for photocopying. Fine. So we Xeroxed stuff all the time. Books(yes, mostly stuff that was out of print, and we needed just that reference on special functions published in 1960!!), notes, and the rest. At that time, electronic media was still somewhat exotic. (shite, I feel old!)
The best place to xerox stuff was at Sealdah. A couple of my friends and I had spent time exploring the back alleys of Sealdah, so we knew where to find the best deals. This place is home to some of the most interesting trades in the world. Keymakers, micro-publishing from tiny places hidden away in alleys which you have to know exist (sort of like Diagon Alley in Harry Potter, if you don’t know it exists, you simply do not see it). This was home to perhaps a few hundred thousand people who lived and worked all inside a tiny area of less than a square kilometer. It would not be inaccurate to describe it as the armpit of Calcutta.
In that place was our favourite Xerox shop. Yes, at that time, we did not have access to things like department copier machines. So we legged it all the way to Sealdah and found a place where they copied stuff for 30 paise a page. And then found suitable binders where the could hard bind, spiral bind, soft bind, pretty much do anything you wanted. These Xerox shops had maybe six sweating blokes operating six machines on two levels (the room was split into two levels). The guys were sweating because the best ventilation in the world cannot take the heat away from six copiers running ALL THE TIME, and they did not exactly have access to the best ventilation. More like one of those high speed pedestal fans. They used to take turns operating the machine closest to the fan; the most comfy position to be in. And they did business with us. We got special deals for bulk orders (as in, the whole class wants the book), and sometimes got stuff Xeroxed on wastage paper (you have to ask for it, they don’t tell you that it exists) There was something called oil Xerox, where they use minimum toner so that the copy does not last forever. Very useful to copy notes which will become absolutely redundant after the exam (assuming of course, that you pass) at which point, the paper can used to simply write stuff on.
Today my boss told me to copy the handouts for his class (I am the TA). The department has its own funky copies with some fifty odd modes and infinitely many features. So its started out by working just fine. About when I was getting confident enough to tell the machine to copy 25 sets, collate and staple them, it started misbehaving. First, it chewed up the original. I got that out. Then it ran out of paper. Ok, I loaded extra paper. Then, it tried to feed paper from a reserve sheet. Which went wrong. Meanwhile, the stapler unit had gone crazy. It started folding the paper any which way it wanted and stapling all over the place. I could just imagine the copier going, ‘aha, this is a class on protein folding, lets start by folding the paper!’ And finally, with a very ominous rumble, the copier jammed. I took five deep breaths and started opening the machine up. I extracted some ten odd papers jammed in strange place in the machine’s innards. It told me to open door 5, press lever 6, pull open slider 8, and pull out the paper. One of our research scientists came in, saw what I was doing and told me that the spectrometer is more complicated. That did not help. I obeyed the instructions, opened door 7, did some stuff and the machine yelled. This went on for a while. Finally, I asked someone from the office to help. He came over. After a while, here we were, both scratching our heads. Then someone else came over and took charge. And we just could not figure out where the FNS conveyance door was. Such is life. Sometimes, FNS conveyance doors will come between you and your happiness. Finally, another member of the staff walked in, and fixed the problem in a jiffy. Bingo!
People photocopy stuff all the time. Students, more so than other people, I imagine. Bad for the trees, and in the long term, bad for us. It would be nice if someone came up with a paper substitute which would also be easily biodegradable and clean. Meanwhile, this blog is about copying stuff. Back home, Xerox has become a substitute word for photocopying. Fine. So we Xeroxed stuff all the time. Books(yes, mostly stuff that was out of print, and we needed just that reference on special functions published in 1960!!), notes, and the rest. At that time, electronic media was still somewhat exotic. (shite, I feel old!)
The best place to xerox stuff was at Sealdah. A couple of my friends and I had spent time exploring the back alleys of Sealdah, so we knew where to find the best deals. This place is home to some of the most interesting trades in the world. Keymakers, micro-publishing from tiny places hidden away in alleys which you have to know exist (sort of like Diagon Alley in Harry Potter, if you don’t know it exists, you simply do not see it). This was home to perhaps a few hundred thousand people who lived and worked all inside a tiny area of less than a square kilometer. It would not be inaccurate to describe it as the armpit of Calcutta.
In that place was our favourite Xerox shop. Yes, at that time, we did not have access to things like department copier machines. So we legged it all the way to Sealdah and found a place where they copied stuff for 30 paise a page. And then found suitable binders where the could hard bind, spiral bind, soft bind, pretty much do anything you wanted. These Xerox shops had maybe six sweating blokes operating six machines on two levels (the room was split into two levels). The guys were sweating because the best ventilation in the world cannot take the heat away from six copiers running ALL THE TIME, and they did not exactly have access to the best ventilation. More like one of those high speed pedestal fans. They used to take turns operating the machine closest to the fan; the most comfy position to be in. And they did business with us. We got special deals for bulk orders (as in, the whole class wants the book), and sometimes got stuff Xeroxed on wastage paper (you have to ask for it, they don’t tell you that it exists) There was something called oil Xerox, where they use minimum toner so that the copy does not last forever. Very useful to copy notes which will become absolutely redundant after the exam (assuming of course, that you pass) at which point, the paper can used to simply write stuff on.
Today my boss told me to copy the handouts for his class (I am the TA). The department has its own funky copies with some fifty odd modes and infinitely many features. So its started out by working just fine. About when I was getting confident enough to tell the machine to copy 25 sets, collate and staple them, it started misbehaving. First, it chewed up the original. I got that out. Then it ran out of paper. Ok, I loaded extra paper. Then, it tried to feed paper from a reserve sheet. Which went wrong. Meanwhile, the stapler unit had gone crazy. It started folding the paper any which way it wanted and stapling all over the place. I could just imagine the copier going, ‘aha, this is a class on protein folding, lets start by folding the paper!’ And finally, with a very ominous rumble, the copier jammed. I took five deep breaths and started opening the machine up. I extracted some ten odd papers jammed in strange place in the machine’s innards. It told me to open door 5, press lever 6, pull open slider 8, and pull out the paper. One of our research scientists came in, saw what I was doing and told me that the spectrometer is more complicated. That did not help. I obeyed the instructions, opened door 7, did some stuff and the machine yelled. This went on for a while. Finally, I asked someone from the office to help. He came over. After a while, here we were, both scratching our heads. Then someone else came over and took charge. And we just could not figure out where the FNS conveyance door was. Such is life. Sometimes, FNS conveyance doors will come between you and your happiness. Finally, another member of the staff walked in, and fixed the problem in a jiffy. Bingo!
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