Columns

STILL LIFE

Paper Caper

It was when I began working on computers, a few leap years ago. Computers then, were fairly new to the system and it was presumed that once they multiplied, the use of paper would be to the minimum.
paper caper

One day the boss entered the office unannounced and declared – Let’s make the office ‘paperless’. Everyone looked up from their screens and understood what he intended. The office boy didn’t have a computer, so he took a look at the file cabinets around and said ‘hmmmmm’. We looked up from our screens again, but didn’t quite understand what he meant. Not till the next morning at least – when we found to our horror – that all the papers from the office had vanished. The office boy decided to get into the good books of the Boss and swept every single bit of paper out from the office. Well, he didn’t get into any good books at all. He got sacked instead.

It was as if all those fans of nature, who have been on their knees for years, were finally getting their prayers answered. Count the number of trees that could be saved every time your Boss enters the office unannounced and declares – Let’s make the office ‘paperless’. My heart goes out to all those trees out there in the sun. But ‘God save the trees’ can wait a little longer as I master the smoothness of moving mouse over pad. The truth is that it is so much convenient to move a pencil over paper rather than a mouse or a digital pen over the work pad. Considering all the computer technology around the globe today, it still makes better sense to run a pencil over sheets of paper when creativity strikes. Writers also prefer to put pen to paper rather than punch a bunch of alphabets on the keyboard. It is simply more free-flowing. As for the paper that floats around at the office, they say it adds to the environment. It is easier to convince your superiors that work happens around in a place where paper is sewn all over.

It is more than a decade since the day our Boss walked into the office unannounced and declared – Let’s make the office ‘paperless’. By then, most of our computers have turned faster & better and infact, look slicker now a days. Since then, a lot of our art has turned digital too. Painters who splashed colour over canvas, in the name of modern art, now use filter effects on computer monitors to modernise their art further. Press the ‘Print’ button and hey Presto ‘Digital Art’ was born. The agony of mixing colour onto palettes and tearing hair each time you sneezed in the middle of a brush-stroke were over. Now you experiment by making mistakes with intend and then press the ‘Undo’ button.

Wonder when those great computer whizzes across the world will discover the ‘Undo’ button to ‘Life’. The office boy who lost his job would surely be glad to use it!

Felix Martires


In advertising not to be different is virtually suicidal.
— Bill Bernbach