“Australia’s postal service, for example, has more parcel deliveries than mail. In the same manner, if our e-commerce picks up, most of the people will make use of India Post (IP) since we are the only players to have the widest possible network, and IP will still have a chance to stay alive,” said Mervin Alexander, post master general, Chennai circle.
The department is, however, constantly engaging with people through its philatelic activities and special initiatives, like ‘My Stamp’, of which it has sold over 5,000 models. “We are aware of the fact that letters will start to dwindle in the coming decades. However, we have already started to diversify our services. We are going to introduce core banking very soon,” said Mervin Alexander.
The philatelic activities of the department continue to find takers. “Stamp collection will help one develop patience and skill, those are the major benefits. The collection of stamps and putting them together needs a lot of skill; there is also great scope for learning about other countries,” said Dr S.S. Sukumar, former state president, Indian Medical Association.
The department personnel claim that as many as 60 lakh letters and greeting cards are delivered during New Year and Christmas.
“I still preserve my father’s letters which become precious after some years. The youth, these days, do not know what they are missing because they were never in that era. My brother has written long letters to us, scolding us; it brings back a fragment of memory when one re-reads it today.
E-mail pinging does not give the feel of a handwritten letter. We have lost our writing and reading habit over a period of time,” said Dr Sujatha Priya, faculty of English at Anna University in Chennai.
Source : http://www.deccanchronicle.com
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