Shorthand House

Shorthand House, a Publishing and Sales Unit was established in 1978 for the publication and sale of the books of the Guinness Record Holder Author, Dr. G. D. Bist, Guinness Record Holder, the first-ever Ph.D. in Stenography in the world. The are available in English and Hindi. etc.

Shorthand House, a Publishing and Sales unit was established in 1978 for the publication and sale of low priced books on Shorthand, Typewriting (Typography) and Office & Secretarial Practice. All the books are approved by the Director General, Employment & Training for all I.T.Is., A.T.Is., Polytechnics, and C.B.S.E. for +2 Vocational Courses and for Courses run by NGOs/ NIOS. Its sister firm M/s Vishisht Prakashan also deals in the publication of some Books.

The Author

The Guinness Record Holder for fastest Shorthand writing at the speed of 250 words per minute
The first-ever Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Stenography in the world

Dr. Gopal Datt Bist has an outstanding name in Stenography and Parliamentary Reporting. Authoring more than 30 books in English and Hindi Stenography, Typography, Office and Secretarial Practice, he has thousands of followers in India. His students include Parliamentary Reporters in India at designations of Joint Secretary, Director, Joint Directors and Deputy Directors who have a distinct record in high speed writing in both Houses of Indian Parliament.

The path breaking experiments done in the field by the Author in the last 40 years has shown remarkable results and records of highest speeds in the shortest possible time. Dr. Bist, first himself achieved the highest speed record in shorthand writing, then published his research in the form of Stenography books for the students to follow. His youngest student to equal his world record was Mr. Harish Chandra Bist, who touched 250 words per minute at the age of 22. Mr. Harish, who is Joint Director in the Lok Sabha Secretariat has the unbeaten record of 260 w.p.m. with 100% accuracy.

The author also helped the National Institute for Visually Handicapped, Dehradun, in developing the Braille Shorthand Code in Hindi. This code is very successful having the highest percentage of successful Stenographers. He practically demonstrated the writing of Sanskrit Shorthand, winning the Shri Ganesha Award, from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India. However, the dream of developing Sanskrit Shorthand is yet to be fulfilled.

Voluntary Training Programmes in the field of Stenography were initiated by him for Vocational Teachers, I.T.I. Instructors, Polytechnic Lecturers in India for the States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. He explained the art of success by his innovative techniques of accurate Shorthand writing in Hindi and English. His Research in Shorthand titled “A Historical, Linguistic and Comparative Study of Stenography” published in Hindi, with the financial assistance of the Ministry of Human Resource Development's Education Department, is the first-ever authoritative Book on Shorthand rectifying the deficiencies of existing systems of Shorthand and giving an over-all analysis of all the Indian Languages systems of Shorthand.

His creativity and self learning techniques elaborated in his books, made the down-trodden and poor students able to get suitable jobs in all sectors of the Economy, hence turning their dreams into reality. His Art of Success enables students to face challenges of life with proper guidance, fruitful labor and motivation.

Modern Shorthand Systems

Pitman Shorthand

Sir. Isaac Pitman published his stenographic soundhand in 1837, later called phonography or Pitman's Shorthand based on the phonetic structure of the ancient Indian language Sanskrit. Till the advent of Pitman phonetic system, nearly 460 systems of English Shorthand had been experimented in England alone! The peculiarity of this system was that the vowels were separated from the consonants and were based on the Indian language system. That is why, majority of the Indian and world languages adopted the phonetic structure of Pitman Shorthand.

Gregg System

Dr. John Robert Gregg, published his system of Shorthand based on the longhand letters in 1888. This system became popular in the united states. The special feature of this system was, there were no thick and thin strokes and no position writing, resembling the ideas of Pitman's Shorthand. This system is not popular in India, because of it's longhand Roman style, contrary to the writing systems in Indian languages.

Sloan-Duployan System

Mr. J.M. Sloan of Paris brought out an adaptation to English of the French system of Duployan in 1884, later named after them. In this system, vowels were joined to the consonants, unlike pitman's. This system failed to gain much popularity, as Pitman's Shorthand was already more reliable.

Simple (Pitman) Shorthand System

The latest system of Simple (Pitman) Shorthand was published in 1987, after a long outstanding research and experimentation by Dr. Gopal Datt Bist, the first ever Ph.D. of stenography in the world, and the Guinness Record holder for the highest shorthand writing speed of 250 words per minute. Based on the linguistic study, this system rectifies the deficiencies of Pitman's system. The linguistic classifications of Diphthongs, Triphthongs, Diaphones and Triphones, Logograms and Grammalogues, Alternative forms of R and L strokes; W and Y; H and SH; St Loops, Compound Consonants, Intervening Vowels and representation of Proper Nouns are distinct features of this system. It is best suited for bilingual stenography in Indian languages. It's Hindi version, 'Vishisht Aashulipi' is very popular, having it's highest speed writers in both Houses of the Indian Parliament.