Post Haste 1
Letter writing: The ’90s.
You write one. Put it an envelope. Trudge to the post office, stick a stamp and post it. It’s a day late already.
It is collected, taken to the nearest office and sorted according to district or city. Add another day.
The news is stale by a couple of days, which is the time taken to reach its destination by train.
Sorted yet again, the postman finally delivers it at the doorstep.
Letter writing: The year 2000.
You write one.
Email it to the remotest village in the country with a post office.
It is printed on paper and delivered to the addressee.
Time taken: Less than 24 hours.
If the pilot of the Pune Postal Department is a successful one, then this is what you can expect in the near future. It is scheduled to be tested in Pune, Ahmednagar, Solapur and Satara within six months, since post offices in these districts are computerised.
The concept is simple. Log on to the Indian postal service website (http://indianpostoffice.net - yet to be operational). Open an account, obtain an email ID, and start mailing. Messages are sent to the nearest wired post office where they are printed and delivered to the receiver’s doorstep. All the sender needs to have is a geographical or email address.
The idea is far from original; the Indian Postal Department has only just woken up to its potential. Bharat Mail has been doing something similar since July 1998. Log on and email a letter which is then printed and posted to any destination in India.