Speed Post- Not Speed Posting!
Today the moment I got up from my bed and went to brush my teeth, my father asked be to take the letter which he had in his hand to the post office which had to be posted… speed posted to Denmark. I had to go by car so wasn’t a big issue then. He told me few of the post office branches, which were much closer to my house than the main office, and thus I decided that I would leave by 10 am to SPEED POST to the nearer post office. I drove my fathers Accent, an absolute gliding experience even on Indian roads listening to the all time melodic songs of MLTR in the perfect weather one should be driving and within no time I had reached the Post office branch and then the real story started… It was 10:15 AM...I went inside the office I could see a big counter which was manned by 3 employees and behind them a few rusty iron tables and chair arranged in a slapdash manner. There were few postmen behind that arrangement with jute bags stained and stinky with letters being thrown out of them on the floor! Way behind were some rusted godrej cupboards and hooks on the wall on which there were hung a few pants and shirts which I figured out must be of those postmen who work there. Up on the ceiling were 2 fans which were I think were attempting to spin their blades… even Misty, Ms.SJ’s white small hairy dog spins himself around faster than that object hanging at the ceiling. In short a perfect Indian government office…
I moved forward to the counter where one girl of around 25 years was looking at me from behind the counter. I smiled and I said, “I’ve to speed post this letter.” She took the letter and tried to read what the PRINTED address on the letter said. Then she asked, “Where do we post it?” “Denmark!” I replied. She gave me a baffled look and asked me; “Bahargaon ka hai?” which means is it international. “Yes… To Denmark.” I replied giving a baffled look back as her question actually baffled me cause she is working in a Post Office and the address was printed in Times New Roman with 24-font size.
Looking here and there referring some of their paperback and asking few people around her she came to a conclusion that it would cost me 740 bucks. By then it was already 10:35 am. She requested for some more time. I having vacations didn’t have anything important to do so I was pretty chilled about it. Then she took out some stamps from her drawer and tried counting them and after 10 minutes with my help she figured out that they didn’t value to 740. For some reason she was hesitating to talk to her senior about it who could only in the office take out the stamps from the safe. She asked me to go to the main office far away instead of her asking her boss to take out the stamps. I gave a baffled look again and said, “No I wont… its far and besides you got to do it… I’m your customer.” After sometime more the boss and the dame spoke something and finally Mr. Boss got up from his chair and walked in his governmentally attitude way to the safe and got out the stamps folder. I felt relieved until suddenly I found that even the boss is confused about something and is discussing with the dame. Soon he announced loudly with a tranquil look on his face, “There are no Stamps in this post office… You need to go to the main office.” I was stumped! Have you heard anything like No Stamps in the Post Office! I couldn’t move for sometime. I decided there was no point arguing about it cause it was of no use cause I had already wasted an hour over there and didn’t intend to waste more. It was wiser to take a back seat and drive to the main office. Luckily the Main office has a computerized system that doesn’t need those traditional stamps and my work was done after a long wait in the queue of half an hour, fairly less as per Mumbai standards. I hope the post is speedy enough as it claims itself to be as Speed Post but definitely its not Speed Posting to the Post Office!
posted by Omkar @ 3:26 AM
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