50 mail runners reached General Post Office, George Town on the occasion of celebrating National Postal Week
50 mail runners
through post offices in Mogappair West, Valaaravakkam and Thiruvanmiyur
reached General Post Office, George Town on the occasion of celebrating
National Postal Week. Photo: V. Ganesan.
Reaching across to
someone in another continent is as easy as a phone call or a chat
message now. But there were times when messages were passed through mail
runners who traveled long distances on foot.
On Wednesday, a
team of youngsters tried to rewind the clock a bit and took Chennaiites
to a bygone era when sturdy men were employed to deliver messages. Clad
in khaki and white, carrying mail bags and spears, these youth walked
the streets of Chennai commemorating the service of mail runners, the
predecessors of the postal system. Thirty five youngsters relayed two km
in the costume and covered 50 post offices on two routes — Mogappair
West to General Post office and Valasaravakkam to GPO. They were
honoured at a function at GPO.
“It was difficult
to manoeuvre in the traffic between Saligramam and Vadapalani. Because
of the period costume, people gave me surprised glances and I was even
chased by a dog. I understand how mail runners braved weather and
animals in the past,” said Dheena M., an entrepreneur who was a
volunteer ‘mail runner’ on Wednesday.
The idea to pay
tribute to mail runners came about when debut actor and entrepreneur Ram
Arun Castro was researching for his upcoming movie Ottathooduvan . “I
did not find much information even on the internet on these brave men
who met with even fatal accidents on their way to convey messages. There
were runners who ran 20 km a day carrying a lantern, a sack of letters
and a spear to defend themselves,” said Mr. Castro. He mobilised a group
of youth to play the role of mail runners as a tribute.
“Some people
mistook us to be beggars as we tried to check for addresses,” he said.
The group has also submitted a petition to the postal department to
establish a statue for mail runners. There were over 1300 mail runners
in the Indian postal department when the service was started in 1854.
Mervin Alexander,
postmaster general, Chennai City Region, said: “Even now, we have mail
carriers in places like Kodaikanal where mails have to be delivered by
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