JOIN US“There are times when I go all the way to far-flung places and return without delivering any letter. This generally happens when people shift their homes and when we find it tough to locate the address mentioned in the post. I find it a great deal tougher to find houses in Yeshwantpura slums and Ambedkar Nagar near Adugodi as the roads are not proper and homes do not have house numbers. Sometimes we call the phone numbers when we do not find the particular house number.” This is postman M Shariff’s lament, echoed across Bangalore.
To familiarise postmen with the area they are assigned to cover, the Department of Posts gives training for a week or two. Although this training helps, some postmen find it difficult when they are asked to deliver letters and other postal articles in areas surrounding their jurisdiction office. That happens when the postmen assigned to that area is on leave or unavailable. Revanna P, who has been delivering speed posts for the last five years, notes that finding addresses in areas such as Govindapura, Venkateshpuram and Frazer Town is a tough challenge.
“Sometimes I take half an hour to find a house. Some of the residents do not pick their phones when we call them. They just abruptly cut the call and do not respond properly,” complains Revanna. “Each postman has an area assigned. Once the ordinary and registered posts are sorted out, we start the work of delivering them. This task gets tough and tiring even if there is one letter with a tricky address,” says a postman.