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 mobilized 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
Source : http://www.thehindu.com/
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