Filter Coffee #045

On Amanuenses

In response to 🔗 FC #44, I got relatively good feedback on ‘relatively speaking’. In fact, 🔗 FC #43, which discussed ‘Invitations’, relates well with FC #44 given that inviting relatives involves a process of elimination. The parameters for elimination may range from “Did they invite us?” to  “Did they come when we invited them last time?”

On the topic of relatives, my reader, MRK, has lamented that interaction among close relatives is also becoming so rare that the kids who are cousins hardly have the opportunity to bond, though when they meet they enjoy being together. At all other times, these kids are busy with their gadgets and they have to be literally pushed out to go out and play.

Shahji fondly recalls his departed cousin coming and spending the night in Shahji's house when visiting Trivandrum even after checking into the hotel, to follow company rules. It gave Shahji and his family much joy.

Anything special about 9th May? 

Yes, one can think of a couple of historic events among others.

On 9th May 1386, The Treaty Of Windsor was signed between England and Portugal to ratify their alliance. This is the oldest known diplomatic alliance and it is still in force.

A little past midnight on the 8th May 1945, the German Instrument of Surrender was signed and so 9th May is celebrated as Victory Day, the day of surrender by Nazi Germany.

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👩🏽‍🎨 Amanuensis

When I was studying law in Mysore way back in 1969, I had the privilege of being groomed as a lawyer by my father (Late M S Rangacharya) and my brother Dorai (Late Sri M R Narayanaswamy), both of whom were lawyers of eminence in their own right. My father practised during the pre-independence era and so he had an excellent vocabulary and the pleadings that he wrote often stumped both the Judge and the opposing lawyer. Much later into my practice, I could relate to Late Justice V R Krishna Iyer whose judgements were a treat to read but with the help of a good dictionary.

In contrast, my brother’s drafting had that fluidity and was easy on the eye. If you recall in 🔗 FC #08 when I spoke of ‘Access to Justice’, I had mentioned that winning a case is all about how good a story you tell the judge. Well, my brother did that very well.

In those days typists and stenographers were in much demand. Of course, now stenographers have become a vanishing tribe. Taking dictation in shorthand and typing it was the job of a steno-typist. I now recall with some amusement how, when I was in high school, I was made to learn typing by going to the Metropolitan Training Institute at the end of the 100 feet road in Mysore for a monthly fee of Rs. 5, and that too payable in two installments!. The elders in the family had made a contingency plan which visualised my being gainfully employed as a typist in some government office if I flunked school. They call it Risk Assessment and Mitigation, now.

One day, as I sat with my father going through some property documents which were in Kannada, I noticed that at the very end there was this legend in Kannada: ‘Bikkalam Srinivasaiah’. I asked my father the meaning of ‘Bikkalam’. My father had an interest in the Urdu language and he had many Muslim clients. Of course the Urdu they spoke in Mysore was more Hyderabadi than Lucknowi. He explained to me that the word Bikkalam was a  distorted version of the Urdu word ‘ba-qalam’ which was derived from the words ba-qalam-e-Khud which meant ‘in one’s own writing’. The word ‘ba-qalam’ or ‘Bikkalam’ meant ‘the document writer’ who wrote the document which an ordinary person could not write, given the nature of the transaction or the content. My father went on to say that the English word Amanuensis was the equivalent of ‘ba-qalam’ or ‘bikkalam’.

The term Amanuensis is derived from the Latin servus a manu, which means “a servant at hand,” who was at the beck and call of high-ranking Romans to take dictation and at times would also undertake translation. These amanuenses were trusted and treated as a member of the staff.

Thus, an amanuensis is a person who writes or types for another person whether or not that person is literate or illiterate. I have been the amanuensis for my father when he dictated a plaint to be filed in court. I would of course take down the dictation in longhand and my father would then proofread it and send me out to the typist who would then make 1+3 typed copies. The typist was as old as his Remington typewriter and he would take one thick green sheet of paper (called ledger paper and it was a must, in those days, for court filings to ensure durability) and three white sheets interleaved with carbon sheets. He would then hammer away at the keys so that everything is legible in the last copy. The staccato of the keys was quite something. The typist was now the amanuensis who typed what was written. He also at times typed directly as my father dictated.

My brother was a dictator. Oh, not in that sense! I meant, he preferred to dictate to the stenographer who acted as the amanuensis. Over time I too learnt the art of dictating which required a measured tone, emphasis on the right words and saying the punctuations clearly so that when the typed matter came there would be minimal mistakes. In those days autocorrect meant correct it yourself. 

There was this tribe called ‘document writers’. They would expertly capture the author’s intentions and produce a document and then record ‘read out to the person and accepted by him or her as correct’. These were such good amanuenses, that they would often produce a document which you would think was drafted by a legal professional. You can see some of them even now outside law courts and sub-registrar’s offices.

In the family context, an amanuensis typically wrote a letter for someone who could not write, or who was unable to write due to old age. At times, the person would narrate in vernacular and the amanuensis would translate and write in English. Here it was a matter of implicit trust in the amanuensis.

In an academic context, an amanuensis can perform a very noble function. He may assist a disabled or a visually impaired person to write exams or help him take notes. I have personally witnessed visually impaired lawyers arguing matters with the help of his junior acting as his amanuensis in preparing notes, which the junior would read out when required. A visually impaired musician could well get an amanuensis familiar with musical notes to put together the musical composition. Opportunities to be an amanuensis are endless.

In my law college days, I used to attend the courts during my free time and once I witnessed a case where a Will was being challenged by one of the testator’s sons. The allegation was that the testator dictated his Will to an amanuensis who wrote the will in the same language in which it was dictated and apparently the testator signed it in the presence of two witnesses. The grievance of the son challenging the Will was that the amanuensis at the behest of the elder son twisted the words in the Will such that a larger portion of the property would go to the elder son. The court eventually relied on the fact that the amanuensis had failed to record at the end of the document that the contents of the Will were read out and accepted as true and correct by the Testator. Wiser counsel prevailed and the brothers settled the matter at the behest of the Judge who counselled them that family ties were far more important than property.

There have been situations when you may have been an unexpected amanuensis. Like filling up the immigration form for a worker travelling to the middle east or filling up a money order form for a person who is unfamiliar with the details to be filled in. There have been times when the amanuensis also became the transcriber. To quote an example, a non-Kannadiga would dictate in English and the amanuensis would write it in Kannada.

Many of my readers, who know the ways of life in the village in the good old days, will agree with me when I say that the postman or the schoolmaster functioned as the amanuensis. Imagine a man from the village who is in the army. When he writes a letter to his wife who is not literate, it is the postman who reads out the letter and after his daily rounds, he sits with this woman and writes a reply! Maybe in return, he gets a hot cup of tea with some namkeen. 

You can visualise such a scene in the movie “Palkonki Chhaon Mein” in which Rajesh Khanna as the post-man helps the villagers.

And finally, for those who are die-hard Harry Potter fans, you will be interested in knowing that Amanuensis features in the Harry Potter series. Amanuensis Quills is a small stationery shop located in Diagon Alley, immediately next to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. It is a store that sells different types of quills and inks.

Dear readers, do look out for opportunities to be an amanuensis for someone who is disabled or impaired. It makes a world of difference to them. If you have had a previous opportunity to be an amanuensis, please share that experience with us.

The COVID wave is still lingering. Don’t be overwhelmed by it. It is better to take all the precautions that you can under the circumstances you are in. Let it not cloud your mind. Take care, my dear readers. See you next week.