Question

Interview a postman who has been working for many years in a village

Answer 1

(Once I, while playing in the street saw a postman in uniform. Intrigued by him I went to him. The following conversation ensued between him and me):

I: Good morning uncle, are you a cop?

Postman: Good morning young boy. I am a postman!

I: But you are wearing a uniform like a cop! What is this big bag you are carrying?

Postman: I am a postman! I deliver letters and parcels. I wear uniform because I have to!

I: What is a postman? What is a letter? I know what a parcel is as often couriers deliver parcels at home.

Postman: As I have told you already; postman is employed by the postal department of India to deliver letters and parcels to people. Though the letters have almost dwindled away gradually, parcels are still quite common.

I: You mean to say you carry people’s letters and deliver them! How strange! Do people still send letters on paper? At my home we send letters through internet, they are called e-mails. They reach the recipients immediately. They are very convenient!

Postman: I know young boy! That’s why there are so few letters to be delivered these days. These mobiles, computers, and internet have made many things obsolete! Letters are one of them. We don’t have much work. Only in the rural areas letters are still being used for communication. Only the parcels! Does your e-mail deliver parcels too?

I: No, couriers do that. OK uncle, I have got to go!

Answer 2

Me: Hello Postman Sir! You have been serving a village for many years before coming to the town.

Postman: Yes Madam! Actually I miss the village life.

Me: I guess the village must have had very good literacy rate. Only then, would they have been able to send and read received letters.

Postman: Actually, it was not so. There were just a few literate people. Then, a new gentleman joined as a teacher in the government school there. He took free classes for adults in the evening and encouraged children to study as much as they could.

Me: That is a really good thought of that gentleman. So, villagers soon began to write letters to their relatives is it?

Postman: Exactly so, madam. There were a few people who still wouldn’t learn to read and write. Those who did learn wrote letters on behalf of them as well to their people.

Me: If this letter writing happened often, the post office must have become very busy.

Postman: Not only letters, people also learnt how to use other post office services such as sending money orders. The post office that had hardly any activity going on three to four years ago is full of life today.