The world's last handwritten newspaper. (Sounds kind of ominous put like that.)

Gawker has a story about a little newspaper (only four broadsheet pages) in India that is not only the world's oldest Urdu-language newspaper, but it's also the last remaining hand-written newspaper thought to exist in the world. In other words, it's a handwritten Boston Globe, with a larger readership probably, too.

The Musalman is the newspaper's name. It has reporters throughout India who report via phone or fax. Four gentlemen, named katibs, who are ancient practitioners of a form of calligraphy, hand-write out the news reports on the four sheets. The front page is mainly national and international news, the middle two pages belong to local happenings, and the final page is all about sports. I can only assume it's wall-to-wall coverage of cricket matches.

According to the story, the editing position at the paper passes down from father to son. Kind of like the British monarchy, circa 1550, minus that whole religious brouhaha. All modern editors at The Musalman admit there's no logical reason they don't use computers to create the paper--they just don't.

It's cute when traditions continue like this. Antiquated things are charming. Makes me want to wear a shawl, get in a rocking chair by a fire, and bang my cane.