100 Years of the India post

The kind reader might remember my previous post about the 150 years of the India post. I recently got my hands on the stamp released by India post on the occasion of the 100 years of the India post in 1954.

For some strange reason, all the three postmen in the stamp look the same. Its as if a cartoon character went hopping in different settings for a photo-op.

I agree that true blood philatelists out there will shudder at the state of the stamp. But maybe the 50 years stamp that must have been released in 1904 will be in better shape. :)

150 Years of the India Post

The postal department has come a long way since the day they would put a sack on top of a guy and send him around the countryside to deliver the post. Well okay I know that to be untrue. The Indian postman still does exactly that. One case in point is my post on the "Holiest postoffice in the world". Out there the postman actually has to walk 14 Km up the mountain every second day.

Regardless, the Indian Postal service completed a 150 years of operation in 2004 and released this set of four stamps. The stamps try tell us the chronological evolution of the Indian postal service with the first stamp starting the tale with carts and small boats, and the fourth stamp telling us about the "E-post".

"e-Post" is an initiative of the India post that was launched in 2004 but has not really been very successful. You can read up about the e-post on the Indiapost website. But the fact is that the initiatives such as e-post tried to dissolve the barriers between the population having accesses to the Internet and the ones who didn't.

After more then a century and half of operations in a country like this, I'm not sure how good the the india post is. But of one thing I am sure. If nothing else, those chaps atleast managed to produce one postal enthusiast. :)

The Nagpur GPO

I have been a frequent visitor to the Nagpur GPO for a while. I did tell you all about the Philately account with the postal dept, and I generally keep about 10 dollars in my account. This allows to account to run out every other month and gives me a great excuse to visit the place.

The GPO is a beautiful two storied building built in the Victorian style. It is a load bearing structure having brick walls, steel columns, beams and ribs encased in Limer concretewith pitched roof in country tiles and battens.

I am not an architectural expert and any of you might correct me or provide more information, but as per my knowledge, a "Load bearing structure" is one where the walls bear the whole weight of the building. In modern construction, the actual weight of the building is taken by beams running through the building. I am not sure of the advantages of either type, but most of the buildings built by the britishers during the begining of the century were of the Load bearing type.

The exterior of the GPO has red painted bricks and buff colored sandstone. The main structure has wide verhandas, tuscan columns, stone screens and a roman arch topped by a pavillion of 12 columns supporting a clock tower. I found it very satisfying to note that the clock tower is actually working.

The GPO was constructed from 1916 to 1921 and was built in a complex area of 9.5 acres for the cost of Rs 5,07,201.

I of course knew none of this, so to find out I went up to the counter marked "enquiry" and enquired about information on the buildings. I'm not sure they entertain too many enquiries of this kind, but then they finally managed to trace down a plaque fixed on the main door of the GPO (who would have imagined!) with the above information.

A great place to hang around if you are slightly demented like me. Now if onl they would trim the lawn in fornt of the main building, it would make a nice spot for a picnic. :)

Post Box at the GPO

Not much to add out here today. But after yesterdays post about the post box, I remembered the post box at the Nagpur GPO (General post office). Yesterday when I dropped letters to Eric, Angel & AVK , I couldn't pass the opportunity of taking a snap with this gem of a post box. If you look at the post below, you'll see the type of post boxes that the current lot have become. On the other hand, this post box is more like the one shown in the first two stamps.

The writing in Hindi on the lower half of the box is "Khulne ka samay prati din" or "Opening time - everyday". I think it odd to keep opening time as 0906Hrs & 1010Hrs. I doubt even rocket launches take place in my beloved country with such accuracy!

The Post office at Chikaldhara

In my series of the pictures of the post offices, please allow me to post the post-office of Chikaldhara. I had gone there in June 2006 with my wife and I must admit that it must have been a bit alarming for a newly married wife to see her husband getting excited at the sight of a post office!

Chikaldhara is one of the only hill stations near out home and is a very small town. I always find the small town and post offices to be the best to visit. The chikaldhara post office is much removed form the town and at an end of a desolate stretch of walk in the forest. Besides the postoffice was a small park with a hand painted sign of something that looked like a black Grizzly with warnings that bears and other assorted wild animals were likely to pounce on you at a moments notice.

I never said that I envy the post men of my country. I only admire them. :)

The holiest post office in the world

We seemed to be moving out well before 9AM for the trek back to civilization. A bit of a pity I feel, because it is only yesterday night that I have come to know about the fact that there actually is a post office in Kedarnath. A singular achievement of the Indian Postal service & it would have been great to have chatted with the Postmaster. I still decided to go over there for a few token photographs & drop my postcards. The post office is a small house off the main street & as I dropped my postcards in the mailbox, I spotted a couple of guys encased in Razai’s. After greetings were exchanged, they identified themselves as the postmaster & the postman. The postmaster turned out to be a rather humble man who invited me in to chat. I declined as M&P were waiting, but still talked to him a bit from the doorway. The post office remains open for six months in a year & then closes with the temple, when the whole village is abandoned. But on the days it does remain open, the mail is cleared every single day. Everyday a postman walks 14km up from Gaurikund, while another postman walks 14 Km down from Kedarnath. They do it without mules, regardless of rain or snow. I ask him if this was the toughest posting for a postmaster to be in. Not really he assures me. There were always worse places to be in. Up in Ladakh, or the China border. In fact, a lot more places which were a lot worse. I think he is rather happy here. I think postal employees are replacing teachers from my list of favorite professionals.
I would have liked to talk to him a bit more, but bid farewell. Leaving him behind with his razai’s warmth & with a topic to talk over his next cup of tea.


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