Dear Comrades,
In the age of the internet, round-the-clock TV and email and SMS, it is astounding that those in public life
actually write letters when they want to convey something of importance.
Ordinary people have long given up on the Indian postal system, given its
increasingly tardy record.
Speed Post, money orders and registered letter services do have customers but usually only because some official record of posting and delivery is imperative; in all other cases, when missives need physical transmission, courier companies do the needful.
Emails are obviously the fastest, safest and most guaranteed conduit for information, but important people seem to have an irrational love for the oldfashioned method of correspondence. These are probably either personally written with a fountain pen or painstakingly typed out by a trusty stenographer, demonstrating the sender's seriousness.
The time lag between thought, action and reaction inherent in anything dependent on India Post, however, surely cannot appeal to them. But then again, unlike ordinary letterwriters, they do not need to wait for their billets (and the replies) to be actually delivered. For that, there are always TV channels, which promptly relay these letters and often obligingly get instant verbal replies too. Who cares then if the actual letter eventually reaches the addressee via a cycle-riding postman.
Postal services all over the world are seeing an erosion of worth. Where once they were the via media for the gamut of human expression from love letters and hate mail to marksheets, job offers and festival greetings, today, they merely process competition postcards, utilities bills and humdrum business correspondence. The vote of confidence from important people is probably the only thing that keeps them going.
Speed Post, money orders and registered letter services do have customers but usually only because some official record of posting and delivery is imperative; in all other cases, when missives need physical transmission, courier companies do the needful.
Emails are obviously the fastest, safest and most guaranteed conduit for information, but important people seem to have an irrational love for the oldfashioned method of correspondence. These are probably either personally written with a fountain pen or painstakingly typed out by a trusty stenographer, demonstrating the sender's seriousness.
The time lag between thought, action and reaction inherent in anything dependent on India Post, however, surely cannot appeal to them. But then again, unlike ordinary letterwriters, they do not need to wait for their billets (and the replies) to be actually delivered. For that, there are always TV channels, which promptly relay these letters and often obligingly get instant verbal replies too. Who cares then if the actual letter eventually reaches the addressee via a cycle-riding postman.
Postal services all over the world are seeing an erosion of worth. Where once they were the via media for the gamut of human expression from love letters and hate mail to marksheets, job offers and festival greetings, today, they merely process competition postcards, utilities bills and humdrum business correspondence. The vote of confidence from important people is probably the only thing that keeps them going.
Economic Times
