Chronicling Chennai’s dwindling dalliance with letters and post boxes
The HinduThe imperturbable faces of the crooked red letter boxes planted all over Chennai are like epithets the city has forgotten to use. Earlier we used to write letters to friends and family living away, but now I receive important court orders and case related paperwork through the post.” The biscuit colour post box attached to Geetha’s home, she says, is the only registered postal address with the court and is crucial for all work related correspondences. We used to fill the inland letter card, write through the margins and it would have the entire year’s news.” Talking about the history of the letter box, the postal officer says that letter boxes were first introduced in Europe. “In the 1700s, a man went around town with a bell and whoever had a letter to post would hand it to him, or they would go to the post office. Later the authorities decided on an improvement — a couple of boxes were put around the town and a man from the post office would come to clear the letters and send it.
History of this topic
A noble effort to revive letter writing habit
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