This is an article I wrote way back when for a professional writing contest for MTIndia, Amit's wonderful community for medical transcriptionists in India which unfortunately has been made more use of by business owners than by transcriptionists.
In 1995, while the Internet was still for the quirky elite and cellphones were seen only in movies, and as fans mourned Jerry Garcia's death and Windows 3.1 was upgraded, small groups of people in cities like Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata were busily laying down the foundations of the medical transcription industry in India. The next few years saw a boom of unimaginable proportions, with absolutely everybody deciding to jump on to the bandwagon. In the city where I live, there was an MT company or a training institute on every proverbial corner. Of course, this did no great good to the industry, firms shut shop with the same enthusiasm that they started out with, training institutes made hay while turning out ill-equipped MTs that nobody wanted, consultants with fancy offices ran Venezuela and even got beaten up on the streets where they no longer live, US MTs hired to proofread the Indian transcripts didn't have too many kind things to say and the BBS's still resound of that, but it did do one good thing. The novelty and the challenge of the work and the business attracted some of the finest minds. These people came to satisfy their curiosity and make some bucks, but stayed to prove a point.
from Siliguri, but in my frequent visits, such a clear day has not befallen me. One leaves Siliguri, the last trading post in the plains, and passes through the foothills tea gardens and the forests of the terai, feeling the growing nip in the air, till you suddenly realize that you are looking down the hillside. The sal and semul give way to fig, cedar, birch and pine. If you have booked your own car, you can stop as you wish. After the monsoons, the several waterfalls on highway 55 make for a breathtaking experience. At a moderate altitude of 4860 feet, you come to Kurseong, the place of the white orchids. Kurseong offers the first view of the mountain range in the north behind the Ghoom ridge.
