Postman Uncle!

You know how we talk about freedom fighters, the 1857 revolt and the like. Things that were great, things that we are proud of, but things that belong to the past.With the advent of emails/SMS we no longer use what is now popularly known as 'snail mail.' And so, it seems that POs and Postmen have slipped into that category - at least in our minds.
A postman - Whenever I hear that word, the one thing that comes to my mind is an R.K.Narayan story - a lesson in my English text book from high school (Sorry! Unfortunately I don't remember the title..Please help me out here if you know it - leave me a comment! To be of some help,I remember that the girl's name was Kamakshi...) It described the postman as a friendly tatha (grandfather) who was loved and respected by all in the village. It was so obviously a fictional potrayal. Born and brought up in a city, the postman was never held in very high esteem in my neighbourhood.
Though, one postman uncle will always hold a special place in my heart. Back in those days (at the dawn of the new century .. :-P) I used to be this cute, chubby 8th Standard girl who used to write cute little verses for a magazine called 'Gokulam.' You see, the thing was that whenever your piece got 'published' you would receive a 'money order' (of Rs 20) in your name!! And everytime the doorbell rang and the postman uncle came - he'd give me a smile and say -"Ms Archana yar ma? Avangaluku money order vandiruku" and I'd give him a huge smile and proudly ask him "Enga sign pannanum uncle?" Even a thousand dollar paycheck today doesn't give me the pleasure and joy that those 2 tattered Rs 10 notes, which the postman gave me, gave.
Anyways, there are always beautiful memories from the past to reminisence from. So let's get back to why I suddenly wrote this blog! I was,as usual, just browsing through the newspaper when I came across this article about what POs are doing today - in a world where its been ages since you received a letter via normal mail. And it made a great reading. And so I wanted you guys to read it too! It just shows how much you can do when you want to - The only other direction where efforts must be put in, I think, is advertising and publicity. What do you think?

Here's that article which appeared in The MetroPlus supplement of The Hindu (on 15th
May, Chennai edition) The link to the actual article is below as well. Enjoy!

Dekho ek dakiya aaya
Thaila ek haath mein laya
Pehna hai woh khaki kapde
Hath mein dheron chitti pakde
Add to the description a rickety bicycle and you resurrect a childhood memory of a postman. Naturally then, a recent promo on TV of a private telecom operator featuring village kids making paper boats out of inland letter cards (signifying their red undancy) infuriates your sense of a precious past. So much so it prods you to find out whether in the age of ‘e-volution’, the postal department and the postman, part of our daily life those days, have really gone out of work. But quite interestingly, you find that the little red mailbox just got bigger, not long after you penned your last letter. And quite silently so.
As the number of personal letters began to decline heavily (50-60 per cent currently, according to the Department of Posts’ Book of Information 2004-2005) due to the advent of technology (read SMS, e-mails), our postal service looked inwards for a way out and came up with a bank of new services. And none seems to be anywhere near the term ‘snail mail’. Citizen service centre
Rather, the day is perhaps not far when you would use your area post office as a full-fledged tech-savvy citizen service centre. For already, you can use your PO to pay electricity bills, mobile bills, traffic chalans, property and income tax, electronically transfer money not just to the last village but also to 185 other countries, dispatch e-mails and e-greetings to places with no Internet access, apply for a passport, post letters through the PC, send bulk mails to your clients and even paste ads on postal stationery. Also, you can now buy stamps with fragrances and might be able to use your photo as a stamp one day!
A senior postal official says, “Every year, we deliver prasadam from Tirupati in bulk to many places in the North and the Ganga water to the South. All you have to do is place your order at the nearest post office.” Talk ing about possibilities of moving anything movable, the official talks of a popular Japanese pickle brand ordered only through post. “Just the other day, a company asked us to despatch shirts in bulk. We not only delivered them but did the packing too. There is a lot of possibility,” he says. But the biggest hitch for the department seems its long-established image of a letter pusher.
“Perception is reality and that has not changed, sadly,” admits another senior official from the department. The department had invested in six advertisements but has not been able to make much of a dent.
“But what has worked for us is the trust people have in the system. Private courier services don’t have the reliability of an established network like ours. When it comes to doing the last mile, our postmen are dependable,” he says.Long serving record
Yet another point to note is the long-serving record of its employees. And because of these pluses, the officials emphasise, many courier companies worldwide have now been sold to postal departments. Take TNT, now owned by Netherlands Post, or say, Deutsche Post, which has huge shares in DHL.
Some courier companies are in touch with the Department of Posts to work together, particularly in the rural areas. That all its software is being developed in-house adds to its cost-effectiveness.
“We are continuously training people at our training centres. Our software is world class. Take Meghdoot. It is used in 40 countries.”
Even as you add this to your list, you hear that soon, railway tickets can also be bought at the PO.
And, talks are on with airline companies to sell tickets at the PO.
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2007/05/15/stories/2007051550210300.htm