The postman, communicator of love, open hearts, and jobs was once loved eternally. Post office is the one thing that keeps the nation united, along with other nations too.
9th October was the world postal day.
Excluding Andhra Pradesh, no reports appeared about the postal week celebrations. Perhaps it’s because AP Circle is ranked as one of the highest revenue earning Postal Circles in the country.
India has the largest postal network. We have more than one and a half hundred thousand post offices. China has 70,000 and the U.S. has 40,000.
The Department of Posts organizes a letter writing competition. It is not linked to World Post Day. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has an international letter-writing competition for young people every year. The intention is to make the public aware of the role postal services play in our society, develop skills in composition, appreciate the art of letter-writing, and strengthen international friendship. However, unfortunately it is not advertised properly though the postal department has a great spread across the nation. The people at the helm of the affairs should note this and take active interest in this activity. To spread the message through more than 150 thousand outlets doesn’t seem like a difficult task.
The theme for 2011 is “Imagine you are a tree living in a forest. Write a letter to someone to explain why it is important to protect forests.” It coincides with the International Year of Forests.
When letter writing is concerned who would forget the letters to Indira Gandhi by her father Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and then letters to Indira Gandhi by her American friend Dorothy Norman?
Dorothy once wrote: she was as much at ease with international celebrities as with the most untutored peasants.
How heart touching!
9th October was the world postal day.
Excluding Andhra Pradesh, no reports appeared about the postal week celebrations. Perhaps it’s because AP Circle is ranked as one of the highest revenue earning Postal Circles in the country.
India has the largest postal network. We have more than one and a half hundred thousand post offices. China has 70,000 and the U.S. has 40,000.
The Department of Posts organizes a letter writing competition. It is not linked to World Post Day. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has an international letter-writing competition for young people every year. The intention is to make the public aware of the role postal services play in our society, develop skills in composition, appreciate the art of letter-writing, and strengthen international friendship. However, unfortunately it is not advertised properly though the postal department has a great spread across the nation. The people at the helm of the affairs should note this and take active interest in this activity. To spread the message through more than 150 thousand outlets doesn’t seem like a difficult task.
The theme for 2011 is “Imagine you are a tree living in a forest. Write a letter to someone to explain why it is important to protect forests.” It coincides with the International Year of Forests.
When letter writing is concerned who would forget the letters to Indira Gandhi by her father Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and then letters to Indira Gandhi by her American friend Dorothy Norman?
Dorothy once wrote: she was as much at ease with international celebrities as with the most untutored peasants.
How heart touching!
There always was and is a human touch connected with post office. The postman delivers your letter or money order at home; there is nothing as humane as that. In the times of shortage of currency the villages survived on the money orders sent by the relatives working in the cities. The postman looked like an angel that time. The glow of happiness on the old wrinkled faces of the villagers while receiving the money order was a scene to be experienced.
I could see lot of such happy faces, as my grandfather was a post master of a sub-post office with a single postman helping him. Most of the villagers collected the money orders straight from the room in the verandah of our house where the post office was situated.
There were no names to the roads, houses or chowks. Yet, the letters got delivered perfectly.
In India, there may be many famous persons. But Mahatma Gandhi was one who never had a permanent address and was always on move struggling for poor people throughout India. So there was a mobile post office chasing him unlike the traditional ones.
Among others I know an example though modest before Mahatma Gandhi is that of a Marathi detective story writer, Gurunath Naik who resided in a small village in Goa. A sub-post office was arranged for him there for his fan mail around thirty years ago. It was said that at times a small van carrying his mail was emptied in his courtyard.
Gradually, the policy makers thought post offices should gain pace. So instead of recruiting more staff proportional to the increasing population, they thought of reducing the expenses in a reverse manner and encouraged private letter and parcel delivery service, namely courier service that is still not recognized by some government departments as a valid deliverer of their documents.
I could see lot of such happy faces, as my grandfather was a post master of a sub-post office with a single postman helping him. Most of the villagers collected the money orders straight from the room in the verandah of our house where the post office was situated.
There were no names to the roads, houses or chowks. Yet, the letters got delivered perfectly.
In India, there may be many famous persons. But Mahatma Gandhi was one who never had a permanent address and was always on move struggling for poor people throughout India. So there was a mobile post office chasing him unlike the traditional ones.
Among others I know an example though modest before Mahatma Gandhi is that of a Marathi detective story writer, Gurunath Naik who resided in a small village in Goa. A sub-post office was arranged for him there for his fan mail around thirty years ago. It was said that at times a small van carrying his mail was emptied in his courtyard.
Gradually, the policy makers thought post offices should gain pace. So instead of recruiting more staff proportional to the increasing population, they thought of reducing the expenses in a reverse manner and encouraged private letter and parcel delivery service, namely courier service that is still not recognized by some government departments as a valid deliverer of their documents.
Then came the emails, the instant message deliverer and really so. Many lament about losing the human touch. But it’s the demand of the time and is in consonance with the speed that general life has caught.
Recently have you seen post boxes, the means to hide your identity but to receive the correspondence? They are all vanished. And emails have taken over. Emails do exactly what the post boxes were supposed to do and that too with all the convenience.
The only sorrow is about the postmen; that as in earlier days they are not promoted as sorters with their increasing age and growing weight, now. A few postmen gasp through humid and tiring high rise buildings which is a difficult sight to look at.
Overall other post staff does the duty of a banker like paying interest on monthly income deposit schemes. The old retired folk not ready to believe in banks or mutual funds or company deposits flock to the post office though the working conditions are not as good as in banks. The employees really toil. The proverbial assumption that the post office job is devoid of any work, is past now.
However the computers have entered few post offices, now printed acknowledgement is given. It soothes, but for the plight of the nodal man, postman.
At times I’m afraid, one day the post offices also may vanish. It’s as remote as the fear that vernacular languages may perish. But the thought made me nervous till I read the following reports from different countries about the World Post Day celebrations:
Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) asked citizens to send greetings to its postal staff in appreciation of their dedication and contributions. This is because of the efficient way the system works in that country and the satisfaction expressed by its citizens.
Australia Post has a programme “to remind people that sending a personal card has its place in keeping in touch.” The aim is to produce a postcard that a person can send to a friend or family. Stamp designs can be chosen. There are also instructions on how to create a postcard using a mobile phone and tips on letter-writing for different occasions.
The Ministry of Postal Services in Pakistan held a function at its Postal Staff College, when there was a cultural programme and award ceremony. Aid packets were also given to postal employees, across the country, who have been affected by the recent floods.
Emirates Post distributed cash prizes and certificates to the winners (along with their teachers and guardians) of the UPU letter writing competition 2010.
P.S. – On the flip side I remember a novel Postman Always Knocks Twice. It’s strange that there is neither a postman nor a post office in the novel. A movie (1981) of the same name with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange as leading pair is no different. This 1934 first novel of James M. Cain is sizzling hot. Critics say that Cain is the "hard boiled" novelist and this novel inspired Albert Camus to write his opus, The Stranger. Both novels are minimalist in style with no excessive dramatic emotional scenes. All are too straightforward even if they are both characterized by gloom and mystery.
Recently have you seen post boxes, the means to hide your identity but to receive the correspondence? They are all vanished. And emails have taken over. Emails do exactly what the post boxes were supposed to do and that too with all the convenience.
The only sorrow is about the postmen; that as in earlier days they are not promoted as sorters with their increasing age and growing weight, now. A few postmen gasp through humid and tiring high rise buildings which is a difficult sight to look at.
Overall other post staff does the duty of a banker like paying interest on monthly income deposit schemes. The old retired folk not ready to believe in banks or mutual funds or company deposits flock to the post office though the working conditions are not as good as in banks. The employees really toil. The proverbial assumption that the post office job is devoid of any work, is past now.
However the computers have entered few post offices, now printed acknowledgement is given. It soothes, but for the plight of the nodal man, postman.
At times I’m afraid, one day the post offices also may vanish. It’s as remote as the fear that vernacular languages may perish. But the thought made me nervous till I read the following reports from different countries about the World Post Day celebrations:
Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) asked citizens to send greetings to its postal staff in appreciation of their dedication and contributions. This is because of the efficient way the system works in that country and the satisfaction expressed by its citizens.
Australia Post has a programme “to remind people that sending a personal card has its place in keeping in touch.” The aim is to produce a postcard that a person can send to a friend or family. Stamp designs can be chosen. There are also instructions on how to create a postcard using a mobile phone and tips on letter-writing for different occasions.
The Ministry of Postal Services in Pakistan held a function at its Postal Staff College, when there was a cultural programme and award ceremony. Aid packets were also given to postal employees, across the country, who have been affected by the recent floods.
Emirates Post distributed cash prizes and certificates to the winners (along with their teachers and guardians) of the UPU letter writing competition 2010.
P.S. – On the flip side I remember a novel Postman Always Knocks Twice. It’s strange that there is neither a postman nor a post office in the novel. A movie (1981) of the same name with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange as leading pair is no different. This 1934 first novel of James M. Cain is sizzling hot. Critics say that Cain is the "hard boiled" novelist and this novel inspired Albert Camus to write his opus, The Stranger. Both novels are minimalist in style with no excessive dramatic emotional scenes. All are too straightforward even if they are both characterized by gloom and mystery.
- DevikaRani Kamath
Categories:
DevikaRani Kamath,
India,
Indian Post,
Letters,
Postal System,
Postman,
World Postal Day
