Testing times for the postal service

Every year on October 9, World Post Day is observed globally to highlight the importance of writing letters and postal service. However, gone are the days of writing letters on paper to friends and relatives; the undertaker is speed and ease of digital telecommunications. Sluggish communication of postal system vis-a-vis meteoric velocity of electromagnetic signals of telecommunications has depleted the former's need and importance in relational correspondence among people and in their social biome.

The subscribers of the national postal service complain of the snail-paced delivery of their posts. Mostly, the posts are dropped harum-scarum, and sometimes left dormant at the post office. The customers' grievances about not receiving their posts caused a gradual trust deficit which plummeted to nadir when the private or multinational postal systems capitalised on the poor delivery of government postal systems by ensuring the timely arrival of the posts safe and sound.

The Pakistan Post was awarded a lifeline by Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad, established to disseminate education via distant learning. The public postal service was given the responsibility to shuttle books and written assignments between the university and the students. But alas, neither the books to students nor the assignments back to the university are delivered in time, and sometimes not delivered at all. The lifeline turned counterproductive, denting the public trust in national postal service even further.

The whole gamut of telecom gadgets from telephone to android phone posed existential threats to postal letters, but the written word is still considered the authentic reflection of purity and validity of human emotions. To eke out time to eternalise one's thoughts and emotions for others into written words reflects one's sincere love and care.

An intriguing anomaly of our education system is that though practically we don't write informal letters to our near and dear ones, students are taught how to write informal letters, perhaps just to secure marks in exams only. Or to preserve the art of letter writing as a relic or a vestige!

The literary letters are considered the evergreen masterpieces of literature and language. The letters of Urdu poet Asadullah Khan Ghalib are a cerebral treat to savour the linguistic nuances and cherish the delight of his writing style. Similarly, the letters penned by John Keats help readers and literary critics understand his philosophy of writing poetry. Writes Tara O'Grady: "It's hard to imagine that in 50 years we'll be picking up The Collected Emails of Zadie Smith."

To promote the writing and sharing of letters among students, letter writing contests must be held in educational institutions. The Pakistan Post must distribute self-addressed envelopes among the learners and common people to send it suggestions to help it improve its performance. To facilitate the people, the letters must be collected at the doorstep on call. Also, the presence of a letter box must be made ubiquitous.

Writing letters on subjects of public interest to newspapers and magazines must be promoted among students, and for that, the print media will have to allocate ample space to accommodate the letters. Also, a Letters Magazine or Public Letters Newspaper should be launched to offer young writers a platform where their epistolary outpourings would be welcomed.

The art of writing letters ought to be revived lest the great tradition of writing public or literary missives peter out. The postal system will have to be equally vigilant and responsible for delivering the post to its destination in time. Only issuing memorable postal envelopes on national events and legends amounts to a half-hearted effort to resuscitate the dying national postal service.

The World Post Day is more than a celebration of the analogue past; it is a reminder that, even in our hyper-digital present of TikTok and Instagram, there is still immense value in the simple act of sending and receiving a postal letter which is an unspooling of self onto the page in real time.