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.

India Post: Thinking Out of The Post Box

A visit to a post office may not exactly be going back in time, but provides a glimpse of an institution struggling to maintain its relevance in an era of giant tech leaps in communication such as email and WhatsApp. Often the post offices are housed in quaint old buildings of 1960s or 70s vintage and surrounded with trees and moss ridden exteriors. The austere internal decor reflects the bygone era of licence-permit raj, when all signs of opulence were frowned upon.

The paint is either faded or falling off thanks to seepage during rains, ceiling fans hooked to longish rods whirr vigorously with a rat-a-tat sound. The window panes may either have cracks or even have few shards missing and ventilators often double up as long term haunts of homing pigeons.

As for office furniture - steel almirahs and racks as old as the office building grace the background. Files with lavish toppings of dust, lying undisturbed for months or even years, adorn these cabinets. The papers too have mellowed with age to off white colour.

As a semblance of modernity the computers have made inroads into post offices, but they too look primitive with boxy monitors, which the greying workforce handles in an ill at ease manner.

These offices had seen much better days in the past with milling crowds and constant hustle and bustle. Those manning counters selling inland letters and post cards had a tough time handling the rush and acrimonious exchange with customers over loose change. The sale of postage stamps used to spike during festival seasons as usage of greeting cards was very much in vogue.

Services like money order and telegrams were lifeline for transfer of money and urgent news respectively. Lastly, postal employees used to enjoy huge clout and any threat of going on strike used to rattle the government of the day and communication ministry in particular.

The coming of private courier services began proving a threat to its mail and parcel services. The proliferation of world wide web and email inflicted a body blow to mail services. It was just a beginning - later a torrent of other web based services like messenger, and fall in mobile phone tariffs pushed mail services to museum piece status and acquired a derisive sobriquet - snail mail.

Some of its services like Telegram had to be shuttered as they were no longer viable. The ubiquitous post boxes have now dwindled drastically. There are few takers for Money Order service as there are far better and faster options for money transfer through banks and money transfer firms. For the i-Phone and i-Pad generation an inland letter or a postage stamp is something to be procured for a school project. It used to be essential stationery for nearly every literate middle class household in the country till 1990s.

However it will be naive to believe that this 150 year old institution is now terminally ill and counting its last days. With 150,000 post offices across the country it is now trying to reinvent itself as a quasi banking platform especially aimed at those residing in small towns and rural areas. It is even angling for a banking licence.

The post office deposit scheme still commands great trust among traditional risk-averse investors. And government is making efforts to make them more attractive. However if it wishes to become an aggressive contender, it needs to drastically overhaul its technologically challenged set up.

It will have to replicate the modernisation undertaken by its close cousins - the PSU banks. While some of the old timers may be content with passbooks and paper certificates of National Savings Scheme, it will have to network its post offices and issue smart cards and other easy interoperability facilities to attract new customers. Competitive interest rates may not be enough. 

Also Read: Bangalore Beat    

Telegram As a Museum Piece

Amid a bewildering deluge of smartphone messenger apps and other high tech text messaging services came the news that the state-owned BSNL has decided to mothball its Telegram service from July 15. It will be the last state-owned telegram service in the world to be shuttered.

The public reaction ranged from nostalgia (for those on the wrong side of 40), to a dismissive 'by-the-way-what-is-a-telegram?' shrug by the Instagram generation.

Telecom and IT minister Kapil Sibal sounded triumphal when he  declared that the country will bid the telegram a 'warm farewell' on July 15 and "the last telegram sent should be a museum piece".

The number of telegrams sent in a day in the country had come down to 5,000 from more than 60 million in 1985 and hence not even remotely viable.

In the pre-fax and -STD phone days telegrams played a major role in Government administration, banks and other commercial establishments.

At a personal level telegrams were seen by people as carriers of bad news. They were opened with anxiety, trepidation and prayer. In fact the receivers would often try to size up the expression of the telegram bearer to gauge whether the tidings were happy or sad. Laconic messages such as 'father serious, start immediately', 'grandpa no more' (in this SMS era even this may look too verbose) or news of birth, job posting, wedding wishes - evoked a range of emotions.

In India telegram services were thrown open to public in 1855 and in most Indian languages it came to be known as vernacular equivalent of the word 'wire' - for instance in Hindi it was called taar. By 1856 itself 4,000 plus miles got 'wired', thanks to the foresight of our colonial masters. The telegraph service came in handy for the East India Company and later the British Empire in quick mobilisation of troops to take part in wars or crush rebellions. A beginning was made at the 1857 revolt itself.

In its 150 plus years journey the telegraph system too changed with the times and underwent many technological metamorphosis. It graduated from Morse code to teleprinters and later to world wide web, but since the 1990s it has been a downhill ride. The advent of internet and later mobile phones made telegrams look primitive.

However, in its zeal to bid a 'warm farewell' the government seems to have overlooked some of the problems that may arise in winding up such a long standing service and has not put any alternative systems in place.

First of all the miniscule number of people who still use telegrams have not been provided with any alternative. Many of them may be residing in places which has little internet or mobile phone penetration. They may be illiterate or technologically challenged nor have the wherewithal to own a mobile phone or a computer.

Unlike e-mails or text messages telegrams enjoy legal sanctity and courts accept it as documentary proof. Courts extensively use telegrams for functions such as sending a notice or court order, informing the family of a person who has been arrested and the like. Without telegrams courts and legal fraternity may find it difficult to carry out such vital functions. It is really strange that the policy makers overlooked this important aspect.

Armed forces personnel posted in far flung border areas too have to depend on telegrams to contact their camps while on leave. In case they need to extend their leave telegram is the best option as phone calls are not accepted and letters take time. Without telegrams they even run the risk of facing disciplinary action.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat