LEtTERS

 LETTERS

In an earlier posting of mine, I had recalled how communication in olden days purely rested on postal services –categorized under P and T or Posts and Telegraphs department. Post offices were handling a variety of services including dispatch and distribution of money to recipients through Money orders on nominal service charges. There was also a specialized service TMO or Telegraphic money order which used to intimate the Post office of the ADDRESSE’S zone and advice them to ‘hand over’ a specific amount to a beneficiary for whom, money had been submitted to the dispatching station. On receipt of the message, a postal department employee would call on the addressee and hand over the specified amount. Hostel students in Colleges used dispatch telegraphic message to home, ‘Send remittance’ as if the boy is in financial crunch.  Poor parents, unable to guess that the boy is taking advantage of telegraphic service, run helter-skelter, strain every nerve and pass on the money through TMO. Unmindful of parents’ agony, those boys led a fairly happy life though the amount was less than Rs120/- p.m. That was quite a strain on parents those days.

OTHER SERVICES

There were post cards, In-land letters, Postal cover [envelope], Cloth-lined cover for ‘Registered’/ Insured articles and a special service named ‘Express Delivery’.  Express Delivery letters were delivered to the addressees, once the letter arrived at the distribution terminal or sub post office. Postal personnel used to move on all days, just to deliver ED letters. A NEW AND GLORIFIED AVATAR OF ED is the SPEED POST which takes its sweet time to reach destination though it carries a fancy price tag on the plea that it is traceable in Internet. [What is the use of ‘knowing’ where the letter is, unless one knows the contents or has physical possession of it]?

The old post offices were places dreaded for their rigid postures. They would not entertain any article unless it satisfied the ‘prescribed norms’. Like a detective agent, the official in the booking counter would cast a piercing look to see if the outer cloth is stitched intact and that all along key points on the stitch, molten lacquer seal is applied and some identity of the sender is embossed on the lacquer seal.  A near dozen seals would stay on the stitch line, lest it should be summarily rejected as unfit for dispatch. None can argue with them, including a Supreme court Judge. It would appear that post offices work more on distrust than on trust.

Why do I say so?  Post cards were popular then. If a buyer wants 4 PCs, the seller would ascertain “Do you have correct tender?” Only if [s]he is satisfied of getting correct change or execute a deal without having to part with coins for balance, [s]he would open an ‘edges-torn  ledger’ and locate a page with  post cards. The employees in post offices do not trust anyone including themselves. So, before passing on the postal stationery, the person would tightly hold the edge of item between the thumb and the index finger and firmly squeeze the edge to dislodge any 2 items sticking together. The exercise would be repeated 3 or 4 times before the number of postcards are handed over to the buyer. Buying In-land letters were even tougher as they were thin pieces of paper and can readily stick together. Somehow, the employees did not make use ‘damp pads’ frequent in cash counters across banks. All said and done, Indian Postal system stays a socially relevant arrangement and serves multitudes of our population- major chunk of which is illiteracy - personified and survives on meager savings. Such populations are not daunted by any rigidity of rules/ practices and that way, despite shortcomings our Postal system has acquitted itself too well and cannot be branded irrelevant. The lone regret is the system has shrunken its range of operations; so, to date it is  accepted as the most authentic machinery handling postal mail, savings, National savings deposits by common man and so on. May be it needs strengthening to be a mechanism of helping common man.

Prof. K. Raman