His passing away went almost unnoticed. He is the the man who developed email.
Today billions of people utilise his electronic communications system, and benefit from his creation. I pen these lines tohonour a man whose pioneering effort, I feel, is at par with that of Dr Alexander Graham Bell.
I was an intermediate student in the late 1970s, and would send letters to all English dailies, including Dawn.
I would write my letter, put it in an envelope and post it and wait for days on tenterhooks whether my letter had reached the intended addressee. The minimum time to see my effort in print if it at all made the grade would be seven to 10 days.
Today, thanks to Ray Tomlinson, a brief letter is written, emailed, and may elicit a response within minutes. Interestingly, in most cases the letters/write-ups sent to dailies get published the following or within two to three days. Newspapers too have benefited from his electronic communication system. Progress indeed.
