Sunday Story: My Post Office Experience

A few days back I was reminded about the World Post Day, which was on 9th October. It made me recollect my own interactions with the post people and particularly certain unique experiences I have had.

A year ago I came to know that Posts had started a Digital Bank account called IPPB (Indian Post Payments Bank), which you could use for online banking as well as for making mobile payments. This could be linked to your Postal Savings Bank (PSB) Account with which you could sweep in and sweep out money. It had zero balance facility as well, compared to other banks like HDFC which requires Rs.10,000 as minimum balance. Since I had already had PSB accounts, thought it would be good to make use of the new digital account. 

I set out to open the account and enquired at my closest Post Office at Hughes Road. They told me it can be opened only at a major Post Office like the Grant Road one. I went there and was told to come inside the office. I assume it cannot be opened across the counter. After being shuffled between a few desks, was led to a lady who sat at one end of a long wooden table. Actually there were two such tables joined together, with a few chairs on either side, some half broken. I suspected the tables must be used for sorting letters or some such work requiring joint effort. I need not say the tables showed signs of heavy usage, and as such were not well kept with rubber stamp marks, and of course the sticky glue (Camlin) or rice paste stains, which we so well associate Post Offices with.

When I told the lady my requirement, she greeted me with a smile. I knew then she was the right person. She was a smallish lady but perched on a high chair. She made me sit on a chair next to her, one of those office chairs, but I faintly recall there was something broken about it, either the backrest or armrest, but she seemed quite unconcerned about it. Though she was the person responsible for opening these accounts, I realised that not too many people opened them as she was searching for the forms, asking and gathering the required things. Anyway she managed to get everything together and we made some headway. She did the whole procedure at the Post Office end from her mobile which presumably had an app for it. For my wife's account, since her signatures were required, I said I will bring her along, but she was accommodating and said she can send the postman on duty for our area to our home to complete the formalities. Was not sure whether the timings would match so did not take her offer. All through this procedure she was quite cordial and friendly. She made me download an app for using the account and quite unnecessarily was explaining in detail the steps and operations in the app assuming I would not know how to use it. I listened to her patiently and in between playfully giving expressions of amazement.

I got my wife after a few days to the Post Office and for some reason the lady seemed quite overawed in receiving us together. There was the solitary half broken chair next to her where my wife was seated and I stood beside her. She asked someone to fetch a chair for me which arrived after some time. As I was silently watching the proceedings, could not help noticing the extreme deference the wife was getting, while the lady assumed an air of self-importance as if she was doing a very important job. 

We had to wait three days for linking the accounts with PSB accounts. In my wife's case it happened smoothly, but I was stuck. I went to the Post Office to sort it out but the lady was not there. Some other person recognizing me offered to help, but told me steps that were obvious and which I had already done. He was kind enough though to give me the lady's mobile number and asked to call her and come again. 

So I took an appointment with her and went there. She was quite apologetic for the problem and her absence, explaining in detail that she had to go out on official work. She seemed quite powerful as she pulled out a young person running a busy counter and asked him to check my problem. He did something and told me confidently it will work in a couple of days. 

When we went at her table, it looked like she had lined up a colleague to sell me a Postal Investment/Insurance plan. He took out a chart and asking my daughters details, started animatedly explaining about a plan. It seemed quite rehearsed as if he was working out from a script. The interesting part was he was mostly speaking to me in English. Though at the office I was only speaking in Marathi, he must have gathered I was an 'English speaking' type. Also he may have got the notion that English is more professional. Having said that, he spoke English quite well, not fluently, but confidently. He may have been told he speaks English quite well and it is the thing when one is good at a thing and it is openly known, you tend to increasingly make use of it, mostly to impress people further and be praised.

I would like to mention a peculiar thing about his English language. I have so often noticed that Marathi people speaking English unnecessarily add the word 'the' in their statements. Some examples are: 

'You need to save the money to make the investments'

'I go to the office' 

'I like reading the books'

'She goes to the college'

'You have the Savings Accounts to link to the Digital Accounts'

In all the above statements the word 'the' is not required and is actually incorrect usage. You will see that without it the statements read and sound better. The point I am making is that he used the word 'the' quite often, to the extent it was immediately noticeable. I went home thinking more about his language than the plan he was selling. 

As promised the account got linked properly and I have been using it for over a year now. Slightly flaky, but serves its purpose. More than using the account, the Post Office has gifted me with a memorable experience which I still remember for over a year now.

Grant Road Post Office

You may also want to read my piece on:  Sunday Story: Does She or Doesn’t She?

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