POSTAL RELATIONS

PHONELESS POSTAL LIFE:

The phoneless life was well maintained by the postal department in our society. India has the largest postal network in the world. From the mid of 20th century many Indians started settling in different parts of India for their job opportunities. The main source of communication was through letters written in inland letters and post cards.

Our culture gives more importance to the relationships.Tamil people were well known for their joint family culture.They maintain their kinship and loyalty of their family virtues. They have a great bondage to their relations.Some important relationships of Tamil culture are Amma( mother), Appa (father),Annan( elder brother), Thambi(younger brother), Akka(elder sister), Thangai( younger sister), Chithi( mother's younger sister), Periyamma(mother's elder sister), Mama( male siblings of mother), Chithappa( father's younger brother),Periyappa(father's elder brother), Athai( female siblings of father),Thatha( grand father), and Patti( grandmother).

The arrival of relatives made our mothers to long for endless nights, so that they can talk endlessly and share many things related to their past memories, present life and about their future plans. The urbanization and career opportunities made people to move from villages to cities. The main source of village people is farming and cattle rearing. So when they go to visit their children they can't stay long and they were not able to adapt the modernization and flexible modern life style.

INLAND LETTER

POSTAL CARD

We can't forget these two cards in our life, which played a vital role in connecting our relatives
who lived in different parts of our country. The 1970's saw many changes in our society. Girls Education was given importance. Many parents dared to marry their girls at distant places too.So the main source of communication for these girls to connect with their parents was through letters. Before that they used to marry them within in their relations that too those who live in near by villages.

After writing a letter, the waiting time for the reply would be of great importance, according to the nature of the subjects. When a letter comes to a family, there would be a fight between the children and sometimes adults too, to see from whom the letter had arrived and also who should first cut open it.

In those days the literacy rate was less in India. So, many people don't know to read or write a letter. Those who were educated and teachers may read or write the letters for them. Most probably that work was done by the postman of a village.So, he was considered as one of the members in their families. When a letter comes, not only he read it, also he lent his ears to their talks. Whether the news was happy or sad, people used to share it with him. Almost many details about a family was known to a postman.If any person went in search of an address, people used to guide them to the postman's house, so that he gave correct information. When a grand child writes a letter in English( in those days education through English mediums was a pride) to their grand parents, they boast about it with pride to the postman, who also translated it to them.

 GREETING CARDS

During festivals, we used to send greeting cards to our friends and relatives. At that time we used to be at our doors waiting for the postman. The emergency news was sent through Telegrams. Telegram was written only in English. For our people telegram was sent mostly for the news regarding death.So,when a family received a telegram, almost the whole street people will gather there to hear the news. Even if it is related to other matters, people were so frightened till the news is disclosed by the telegram boy. In some cases, they also misunderstood the news by the way it framed.

TELEGRAPH FORM

Not only letters, greeting cards, telegrams and parcels were sent and received, Remitting money was  done through this postal department. Since our people were scattered in many places for their job opportunities and men were considered to be the provider and protector of a family, they used to send money to their family through money order. If aged parents were living in villages, their children used to send them money on the next day of their salary date itself. That was their foremost duty.Since relationships were given more importance and respect, in those days it was very rare to come across an old age home.

MONEY ORDER FORM

Till the 1970's  the barter system( exchanging commodities) was in practice among the farmers. they used to exchange their harvested commodities for their required products.So money was not given importance among them. This was a reason for less number of bank accounts. Monthly salaried persons and those who got reasonable salaries alone maintained bank accounts, other than wealthy people. So all the credit goes to the postal department for playing such a vital role in communication.

In the money order form at the bottom there is a small column for Space for Communication. That space would act like a mini post card. Likewise people had many things to share,but less ways to do it.

Among all these credits, there were some draw backs in communication system. That is sometimes there may be delay in the communication process like receiving interview cards, death news, institutional information, etc which  lead to great problems. The reason for those delays were mostly due to improper address, natural calamities, difficulties in finding some addresses, etc.

My Memories:

1.                         In Tamil culture, Fathers used to give gifts( seer in Tamil) to their daughters on the festival occasions. This continues through the generations. If father is no more, the male siblings of that girl used to send gifts. Actually they used to go in person to give those gifts. When girls got married in faraway places, they started to send money, instead of gifts. The two main festivals are Pongal and Deepavali. However 2 days before those festivals we used to receive money from our grandpa. My mother used to buy some gifts for us using that money. So we will wait for the postman with great joy to receive money along with greeting cards. Also we used to send greetings to them and our loved ones.
Till 1990's, we received our school results through postcards. It will be printed either PROMOTED or DETAINED. Even though we were confident about our results,till we receive the card we don't have the holiday mood. When the card is received from the postman, he asks chocolate from us( just for fun), even then we used to give to him at least the next day because on those days postman used to come daily on regular timings.

2.                           It was in 1990's, a Tamil Nadu state government industry, were my father worked was under strike.The workers those who had indulged in strike could not come out of the company. During that time my father was sent to home due to high fever. Two days later, one of my mother's relatives who resides in our area came and asked my mother, "why din't you come for your mother's death?" I think those who read this can imagine her feelings and situation. I need not narrate it. Even after two decades, my eyes water while registering this incident. All of us have great affection towards our grand parents and more over my grandma had a sudden demise, so it was hard to accept.

The message was passed through phone to the company where my father worked(only company number was given to relatives, since we had no phone connection at home.) The workers said their situation that they could not go out, the messenger also told them that a telegram had been sent, so no problem. But we din't receive the telegram on time. We received it  just after that relative who said the news departed. Due to the new address confusion the telegram could not be delivered on time. With heavy chest my parents went that day, which took seven long hours for my mother to burst out on her father's lap.It took some years for my mother to come out of  that incident.

Yearly during summer vacation we used to visit our village. During that period for 2 years we were not able go to our village due to financial crisis,so we din't have a chance to visit grandma. That year we planned to visit in a weeks time after the exams got over. Everything in vain.So it was hard to digest for my mother of not seeing our grandma till she breathed her last.

That incident made us to get phone connection. That was the situation for the people like us who lived in the capital city of Tamil Nadu. What could have been the situations for village people in those days.

Each and every department has its pros and cons. Inspite of it they played their roles in a good way to our societies.Likewise we had all type of experiences in our lives, which made us strong enough to struggle in this world.
                                                                                                        - Tamizh Iniya