50 mail runners reached General Post Office, George Town on the occasion of celebrating National Postal Week
50 mail runners through post offices in Mogappair West, Valaaravakkam
and Thiruvanmiyur reached General Post Office, George Town on the
occasion of celebrating National Postal Week. Photo: V. Ganesan.
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.
Reaching across to someone in another continent is as easy as a phone
call or a chat message now. But there were times when messages were
passed through mail runners who travelled long distances on foot.
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 mobilised 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
