Chennai: In these changing times, the art of writing letters and the magical presence of a postman, seem to have long forgotten.
However, as part of the World Postal Week, which was observed from 9 to 15 October, all the branches in the city were abuzz with several activities.
In conversation with News Today, R Sundaram, a postman from the locality, shares how his job has changed over the last few decades.
“Initially, I joined as a watchman at Pallavaram Post Office, wrote a test, qualified and became a postman,” says the 52-year-old.
“My day would start as early as 8 am. I have also worked through the night at times. Those were the days where transportation was not an easy job, we either had to walk or pedal miles to deliver. Even then, we had to distribute around 150 posts everyday,” he recalls.
He further states that the post office received quite a lot of overseas posts.
“We were respected a lot and people would eagerly wait for letters if they knew someone abroad. Now, everything has changed,” he adds.
“During the early 1980s and 90s, we used to receive several speed posts. As the volume was high, we called them up and asked them to collect from the office,” he states.
Talking about one of his most cherished moments, he continues, “A couple of decades back, I was asked to deliver a ‘job offer’ letter. However, it had only the name of the person and the address was not given. I was on the lookout for the person for more than an hour, since I was unable to locate her residence, I decided to meet the president of the village and delivered the letter. The woman who thanked me immensely, broke into tears on knowing that she had been selected as a teacher.” As the number of letters has come down to a great extent, the post office has now began to offer services such as Aadhaar registration, maintaining saving accounts, paying bills and the like.
“As part of the World Postal Week celebrations, several school children visited our post office recently and have opened savings accounts,” he signs off.