Snail mails

 I met a friend at a get together recently. Our  conversation veered towards  the impact of Internet and  social media on the traditional postal system: a system providing a service which was popularly known as  `snail mails` as against the instant communication, across the world,  possible through emails and social media today.

Remember the times, not long ago, when all communication to your near and dear ones, staying near or far, was done through letters written by hand or typewritten on a self stamped  post card, or Inland letter  or postal covers. If we were   sending the letter in plain envelopes then we  had to buy stamps of different denominations  depending on the weight of the envelope and paste them on the envelopes using   some form of adhesive. Even grains  of cooked rice came in handy as an adhesive!. This  task was later made easy by the Post office  which provided  self adhesive  stamps and all that you had to do was to wet it  by using a wet sponge  or just lick it!.

We used the post card for open communication and Inland letters  or enveloped letters  for any communication which required some privacy. If we wanted to secure the delivery of letters or important documents we  had the facility of sending  them  by Registered Post ; with or without Acknowledgement  Due. When the electronic payment facilities or even basic  banking services  did not have the kind of reach it has today, Money Orders were the sure way  of sending money from one place to another. VPP was another service offered.

In the olden days, our elders believed in using  post cards more often with  information packed using every centimeter of space available in the post card.  It was not unusual to see sentences squeezed into the margins and even the address portions.   You had to wait patiently for letters from your near and dear ones,  living abroad,   sent by Sea Post.  They would take more than a month  to reach you. Later the waiting time  was reduced to a week when the letters started arriving by air mail.

The government in its wisdom has been providing this as a subsidized  service. India can proudly claim to have one of the best postal systems  in the world. We have 1,55,000 post offices to serve the 6,00,000 villages of India of which 1,38,000 are located in villages.  In many of the villages the Post Offices are located in the home of a prominent  resident of the village, even today. I have heard that my maternal grand father  was operating one such Post office from his home  in our  village in Tamil Nadu

With the growing popularity of Social media , when the Postal Department found reduced patronage for its services, making huge losses, it had to reinvent itself.  It had to think  of  non conventional services using its wide network  connecting the remotest villages of India. IPO has  one of the best distribution networks available in the country for any product or service. No wonder that Post Offices diversified into  offering services like Life Insurance, Postal savings . They even offer their Network to Corporates for selling their products.  The latest  is the Indian Post Payments Bank which promises to take Banking services to the doorsteps of households, especially rural households.

While Postal Department is trying its best to stay relevant, it is sad that a whole generation  of Indians  has grown without having any idea of the Postal services. The other day I was asking a school  boy if he has heard about Post offices. His response was `What is a Post Office!`

This article appeared in the Adyar Times issue dt  07-13, July,2019 under my column `Rajan`s Random Reflections`

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