England Diary Part 1: The Ubiquitous Letter Boxes

 

During my recent visit to the UK, what struck me on the very first day was the presence of letter boxes on street corners. 

I stood by to take a closer look at one of them near my lodgings and realised that it was a functioning one with a neat coat of paint and clearance timings distinctly written on it.

It had a regal appearance with an ornate top when compared with our bowler hat top letter boxes.

Before the advent of internet, they were the foot soldiers who kept the wheels of communication, both official and personal, running. 

They were the broadbands of that era.  From the central business districts of metro cities to the far-flung hinterlands, they stood steadfastly braving harsh summers and winters.

Royal Mail has a 500-year-old history dating back to King Henry VIII, and in India it is a legacy of the British Raj, established in 1854.

The coming of internet and mobile phones pushed them to the margins and in India these letter boxes soon started gathering rust and disappeared unceremoniously.

Hence, it was quite a surprise, tinged with amusement, for me to see a functioning letter box in the UK.

During my subsequent days of stay in the UK, I came across the presence of gleaming red 'Royal Mail' vans, many of them electric, at various parts of London and other towns I visited.

All this gave me the impression that the despite the internet and mobile phone, the good old 'snail mail' was still not a 'has been' in the UK, and it whetted my curiosity.

Later on, during my visits to some households, I noticed that all houses invariably had a letter box plate on the front door to receive letters. 

I also saw a pile of letters lying on tables near the house entrances. 

I noticed they were mainly official communications, mainly from the NHS and power supply companies.

During my conversations with my hosts, I got to know that many of the official correspondence continue to happen through letters.

So, I surmised that it is the official correspondence that was keeping the Royal Mail afloat. 

But I was in for a surprise while at a Tesco outlet near my lodging. 

There was a section for greeting cards, which almost reminded me of the 1980s and 90s India, when such a display of greeting cards was the norm at all book shops and fancy stores.

The cards ranged from festival greetings for Christmas and Easter to personal ones like birthday, wedding or even a job promotion.

Though the sale of cards may not be anywhere close to the pre-Internet, mobile phone days, it was encouraging to know that there still exists a market for such cards, and people value sending and receiving cards with handwritten messages scrawled in them, and no mindless forwarding of WhatsApp greetings received from friends circles to relatives and vice versa.

Something totally forgotten in India.