affection delivered by Indian Postal System

My teacher, Kanai Karmakar, doesn't know how to send either an email or an sms. He believes in penning down a very dear letter. The letter is redolent of our relationship that was built long ago, in my school-going period. Age has told upon his health and weakened his fingers therefore. Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to receive his letter, which I would like to share with you. It was the sweltering mid-noon yesterday, when after coming back from school, a job was given to my little niece, who was proud of having been bestowed with this honour. The job was of carrying a letter and giving it to me. She grabbed the letter in her tiny fingers and rushed upstairs like an aerial postwoman.

“Here is a letter for you,” she rent the sky with her winsome shrill. Seeing me standing almost a finger-length away, her shrill went shriller... “I HAVE CARRIED it MYSELF”. She was still clad in her uniform, aroma of her active day was still coming from her shirt, and there was a dense layer of dust on her tousled hair.

Foreign Readers, I know, you are not quite familiar with postcards available here. So, please have a look at at the photograph of the postcard below:

A feeble rendering goes here. Forgive me my lack of English language, which is too weak to translate his affection.

“My dearly loved Dibakar,

     Hope you are well. Here is an invitation from my end. If time and possibility give you an opening, come with Debashis. I have not seen you long since. On your coming over here, we may share a few words in between. Alumni of an educational institute can do a lot, as here for instance, patronized by a group of veterans, they have made such an institute survive.

     You may either catch an Up Sealdah-Dankuni train from Dum Dum and get down at Baranagar Road Station or a 34C bus from Cantonment to get down at Tobin Road. Cross the road, reach Banhooghly More or Dunlop Bridge by an auto or a rickshaw. Now, it will take a gentle 7-8 minute walk to reach Brahmananda Keshabchandra College. Blessings, 2/8/10.

                                                                           Kanai Karmakar”

My little niece doesn't know how significant is the role of the Indian Postal System today. Still today – till today! They have taken immense care of my teacher's love and sent it to me with care. And through this very-old very-new system, a teacher's affection has transmuted from hand to hand, from heart to heart – from a veteran 67 to a young 28 to a little 5½!

Long live Indian Postal System for carrying emotional letters and letters of emotion from door to door!

[Photo Courtesy: My elder brother]