When I meet him at Singarachari
Street, S. Ravichandran has just finished delivering a huge stack of letters.
After a short chat, he will return to the Triplicane Post Office to collect
another pile for yet another round of deliveries, the last for the day.
This 54-year-old postman has a
reputation to guard: he was honoured recently by the Mylapore Academy for
consistently delivering all the letters and posts assigned to him without
carrying any over to the next day. “Our target is to start every day afresh,
without having to deliver the previous day’s posts. We’ll have to maintain 100
p.c. delivery rates for registered posts, speed posts and money orders, at any
cost,” says Ravichandran.
Realising that he is in a ‘one-day
match’ with a steep asking rate, I race through my questions.
He is extremely modest while
discussing his performance, suggesting that every postman at Triplicane P.O.
gives his best and that he was lucky to have had a figure that put him ahead of
the rest.
“My overall tally was good – I was
told by the postmaster and the public relation inspector that I had an almost
100 p.c. delivery rate. It was 99.7 p.c. or 99.8 p.c. or something in the
vicinity,” says Ravichandran.
Postmen are also assessed for how
they relate to the people they serve. On that count, Ravichandran seems capable
of a perfect score, a hundred per cent success rate.
While I keep him engaged in a
20-minute conversation at Singarachari Street, many passersby wave to him. A
few stop to exchange pleasantries. One of them, T. Jagannathan, tells me what
makes Ravichandran special and his achievement, exceptional.
“Most postmen will throw the letters
carelessly and leave. Ravichandran takes the trouble to meet everyone and hand
him the letter. He does this to ensure the letters and posts reach the intended
recipients. Ravichandran is a boon to residents of Amudhasarathy Apartments
where I live. There, many share names. For instance, we have five Balajis, ”
says the 71-year-old Jagannathan, a resident of Car Street.
The septuagenarian’s assessment of
postmen carries considerable weight for the reason that he served in the postal
department. He retired as head sorter (higher selection grade I) at Railway
Mail Service at Anna Road Post Office.
R. Rajaram, administrative officer
at Vivekananda Kendra on Singarachari Street, thinks Ravichandran is
forbearing, and does not retort when people snap at him.
“He has a smile for everyone. In the
two years I have interacted with him, I have never seen him frown. Others at
this office, who have known him for over a decade, also consider him an
amazingly genial person,” says Rajaram.
Another well-wisher of his tells me
he may top the popularity charts in Triplicane. Ravichandran is postman for
Singarachari Street, Nagoji Rao Street, Car Street, North Tank Square, East
Tank Square, South Tank Square and Hanumanth Rayan Koil Street.
The goodwill he has built over the
years is what makes him feel good about living in Triplicane: he is a resident
of Swami Street. “I was employed at Triplicane P.O. on ‘outsider posting’
(temporary) from 1978 to 1988 and then on extra departmental posting from 1988
to 1994. When my job was made permanent in 1994, I was posted to the T. Nagar
Post Office in Pondy Bazaar. In 1999, when I returned to Triplicane, it was
homecoming for me. When I was on temporary posting for a long time, my family
asked me to give up and switch to some other profession. I refused. I wanted to
make it as a postman. My colleague V. Rajangam helped me deal with the difficult
times,” says Ravichandran.
Having served as a postman for so
long, he will soon be in line for appointment as a clerk. Postmen generally
aspire to that position. But not Ravichandran. Here is his explanation: “I want
to be a postman all the way through my career: I want to be out there on the
streets of Triplicane and stay in touch with its people. If I am confined to
the office, I will miss them terribly.”
Source : http://www.thehindu.com/
