Post Master General Office Building on Mount Road, Madras, photographed on March 24, 1959. Photo Credit: Hindic Archives
These days, when communication has become a monument of calls of WhatsApp and mobile phones, it is difficult to imagine the time when a written sentence traveled at a slow pace. But in Madras the past it was a reality.
In the age of 80, tribal calls had to be booked to talk to someone back in a village or in a distant city. Telegrams had to be released to violate death reports or abandon the wish for “happy marital life”. And the registered post was the preferred medium to send valuable documents.
When the reports were closed about the termination of the registered postal service and its merger with Speedpost, it seems that it has been a telegram closing in the last few years. When Palavan buses crossed the city and meeting anyone was personally and not virtual props that we were all reduced these days of hyper-technology, the post office was of immense value.
General Post (GPO) on Mount Road was the hive of activity. Inland letters and postcards were published, cash orders were sent, telegrams were submitted and the registered location was registered with hope and prayers. Pincode was the most important number and often determined whether what you published landed exactly.
GPO still remains and offers Peep to a finer time and managed to remain relevant, although our phones wilted under the overload of the information thanks to several WhatsApp groups. On the days of the snail e-mail, the grandmother’s demise was known through a fixed template: “Grandma immediately expired”.
It was a telegram in which even punctuation cost money, and therefore the report was solved by a thin method, direct and without any euphemisms. Although the telegram was considered fast, it was not a patch of the immediate warnings offered these days.
If the telegram was a double edge sword that dealt with tragedy and celebration on the same scale, he offered a registered -ness security. It costs a little more, but there was a guarantee of reaching the right address. Closed and sent with accuracy, the recipient had to sign the confirmation. Educational certificates, credit documents and insurance claims were sent through this possibility.
At that time, GPO had another charm of a few seconds of booksellers who intervened outside. Walking on the road to Buhari for a cup of tea and buns-masla-Jam was inevitable and completed the experience. Since postal offices are increasingly getting, the way of life is lost.
Published – 9. August 2025 06:00
