(KC Kalkura*)
Till a couple of years back, I used to respond to every invitation by dispatching a postcard. I used to consume as many as 500 postcards and Inland letters per year and which elicited response from at least 100 addresses. However, my exercise had never gone unappreciated by the recipients. It was my habit to write the address in the regional language of the addressee (e.g.Kannada to Karnataka addresses and Telugu to A.P. and Telangana addresses.) The correct pin code in international numerals is the magic.
As my handwriting is Gandhian, I invariably depended on my 1975 model Halda. I stopped dashing off postcards when my typewriter refused to be punished and had gone into disrepair, owing to the unprecedented Tungabhadra floods in 2009. My house remained submerged in 8 ft deep Tungabhadra flood water for 36 hours. So I had to revive the activity on my computer this time on Inland Letters. Of course, earlier in late 1960s, my fiancée in a remote village in Shivamogga district of Karnataka and I used to exchange a letter a day.
I hosted a number of dignitaries: politicians, litterateurs, and social activists, religious and dharmic leaders. Most of them used to drop a postcard or inland letter after getting back to their homes. Even in thanking, each letter, written in cryptic language, in a few sentences had its stamp of individuality and each card differed from the other.
Some of them like the ones from late H.M. Nayak of Mysore, former Vice-Chancellor of Gulbarga University was known for good handwriting. Letters from Jnan Pith Awardee Kannada author Dr Kota Shivarama Karantha were difficult to decipher. Veteran freedom fighter Vavilala Gopala Krishnaiah was known for quick and prompt responses written in chain writing. Recently Sri Uddindi Bapiraju passed on a bunch of letters he had received from the first freedom fighter of Andhra Pradesh, Gadicharla Harisarvotham Rao.
He had received them from the family members of late Pala Krishnamurthy, Deputy Director, Archives, (Retd), Andhra Pradesh. On each postcard, Gadicharla used to note the date of receipt and the date of reply invariably on the same day. With a simple address, name and locality, the postcards were carried in big bags to faraway cities like Madras. It was a journey of 48 hours from Kurnool and Vijayawada to Madras. Then there were only a couple of trains from Vijayawada to Madras and vice versa. Now there are two trains per every hour. Till today there has been no direct train service between Kurnool and Chennai (Madras). The tapal used to be transmitted by bus from and to Gooty Junction. Indian Posts and Telegraphs service was known universally for its efficiency and punctuality and considered one of the best in the world! The correspondence Gadicherla had with friends is helpful to reinvent the great freedom fighter and it provides ample material for a PhD.
In pre and post-independent India, wherever there was no bus transportation, post from Head Post Office to the Sub Post Office and from there to the Branch Offices used to be carried by an employee keeping the bags on his head. the man was called runner. He used to sport sounding chains on his legs and his arrival in any village used to attract people, particularly the children. He was the VIP in the village. Panje Mangesh Rao, a leader of the Kannada Renaissance Movement wrote the poem ‘Postman,’ graphically explaining his duties, emotions, feelings and functions, an expression in the first person.
Lawyers used to keep a bunch of postcards with the addresses of the clients in each case bundle. As soon as the case adjourned, the lawyer’s clerk used to write “Case NO. … posted to Date……. Attend with fees” or: “Judgement delivered, Case dismissed/decreed” and post the card in the Court Post Office. A joke was in circulation. A lawyer wrote a Postcard to the client: “Your case No…… Judgement delivered. Justice succeeded.” The client replied by return of post: “File appeal immediately. Sending fees by Money Order.”
M.C.Setalvad in his informative and readable Autobiography, MY Life, Law And Other Things writes, (Page 17) that whenever he was away from home, he kept writing a letter a day to his wife Vimala. KK Munshi, an eminent Advocate, Member of the DraftingCommittee of the Constituent Assembly, Freedom fighter and founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, ‘with his characteristic literary bent’ suggested their publication, as it would be a welcome addition to ‘epistolary literature’ in Gujarati. It did not materialise.
However, none can equal the Father of the Nation in the art and habit of letter writing. He used to respond to every letter received the same day. There used to be in the hundreds. Unbelievably true! Believe it or not, the communication for the whole of the National Movement was carried on a postcard and it travelled by train from one end of the country to the other.
Inspired by Bapuji, octogenarians and nonagenarians, in particular, Gandhians followed etiquette till the first decade of the 21st Century. Govt offices used to utilise the services of the SERVICE CARDS, with the printed caption On IGS (Indian Govt Service). It was an inheritance from the British legacy. I had an uncle by the name Vasudeva Kalkura. He had the habit of addressing postcards even to the President, the Prime Minister,the Governor and the Chief Minister as well on grievances people faced in the village. He used to get an acknowledgement for every communication in Service Cards with an endorsement: “I am hereby directed by the Secretary to the President/Prime Minister of India/ Governor/ Chief Minister of Madras to acknowledge the receipt of your letter Dt;…….. . The matter has been referred to the Collector/ Superintendent of Police. South Kanara,Mangalore for necessary action. He is directed to report the action taken to you with intimation to the President/Prime Minister/Governor/Chief Minister.” It was a ‘fill-up the blanks format in the printed Service Cards.’
Postcards used to take a maximum of one week to reach Quetta in the North West Frontier Agency (in undivided India) or Bongaigaon in the Northeast from Kanyakumari in the deep South. Till the early 1970s, there used to be sorting in the Railway Mail Service (RMS) coaches. There used to be a post box in the coach. Letters posted in the coach with correct addresses including Pin code, within the state and the neighbouring states are used to reach the destination within 24 hours. And for distant places, it was the journey time of the train.
Postal staff used to indulge in strikes to force the government to concede to their demands. One of the demands was a special allowance for RMS staff. In the 1970s C.M. Stephen was the Minister for Communications. To avoid the rat menace, he set the house on fire. Alas! RMS sorting was discontinued. The journey of the postcard went awry and nobody would tell when it would reach the destination.
Even now the humble postcard costs 50 paise. The price has been prevailing for twenty years. If the matter is printed the charge is Rs. 5. Giving short shrift to the time tested postcard, the government departments, Universities, Banks, Life Insurance Corporations, autonomous govt and semi govt bodies and the courts have switched over the services of the courier.
Once, the arrival of the telegram was considered a bad omen. Now a printed postcard has been reduced to the preferred medium of information about the obsequies. What a change in a matter of five decades!
E-Mail, SMS and WhatsApp Messages on Mobile phones have replaced postcards and Island letters. However, there are no substitutes for the living words in the letters. Messages on Postcards and Inland Letters were preserved. They were fertile hunting grounds and references for historians, biographers and autobiographies- particularly dates, places, persons and events.
Epilogue: Rural India is not covered by courier services. Very often the SmartPhone signal fails, for weeks and months in remote areas. Postal services are the only dependable medium for the areas by improving the delivery system. Many bad decisions of the previous Governments are being revisited by the present establishment. Is it insurmountable to reverse the foolish act of discontinuing the RMS sorting?
(*K.C.Kalkura, Advocate and Social Activist. )
History of postcards
Tracing back the origins of the picture postcard is difficult because postcards were not simply invented — instead, they evolved. Their history is inevitably linked with the development of the postal service, but also features innovations in printing and photography, daring proposals… and even a 300-meter tower!
We try to chronicle the history of postcards through a timeline of relevant events, going back a few centuries to provide the context that culminated in postcards being officially issued and recognized by a postal operator, on October 1st 1869.
17-19th century
Following the popularization of printing presses, visiting cards, bill heads, writing paper and other types of paper ephemera started to have illustrations on them, often with delicate engravings and tasteful designs.
Already in 1777, French engraver Demaison published in Paris a sheet of cards with greetings on them, meant to be cut and sent through the local post, but people were wary of servants reading their messages… so the idea was not very well received. 1840
A postal reform in the UK unified the cost of domestic mail delivery to 1 penny per envelope, to be prepaid by the sender. The proposals of Sir Rowland Hill also included that the pre-payment was to be made by issuing printed sheets of adhesive stamps. The Penny Black, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp, made its debut in May 1840.
Simultaneously, decorated prepaid letter sheets (similar to today’s aerograms) were also put on sale by the post office. These were designed by William Mulready and showed Britannia with a lion at her feet, sending mail messengers to all parts of the world. Though this particular design turned out to be unpopular and often ridiculed, this was the first postal stationery item issued by the post office that had decorations on the outside. They were replaced the following year by plain pink envelopes, with a printed 1 penny stamp on the corner.
Postcards are as versatile as your imagination. They can be used to introduce new products and services, announce a sale or special offer, invite people to a tradeshow, seminar or event, drive traffic to a website, serve as a coupon…just about any marketing idea you have can be conveyed through a postcard.
The Postal Service suggests that postcards are more than six times as likely to be read as compared with direct mail letters – 94% versus 14%. They don’t have to be opened and you can add colors and graphics to quickly get your reader’s attention.
1. Cost-effective
For as little as a few hundred dollars, you can reach thousands of prospects and clients with multiple “touches”. No other marketing vehicle offers this level of reach for such a small investment.
2. Extremely personal
Don’t you feel like you’re talking with someone when you read a postcard? A postcard allows you as a business owner to get close to your prospect and communicate in a friendly, social environment.
3. High readership
The Postal Service suggests that postcards are more than six times as likely to be read as compared with direct mail letters – 94% versus 14%. They don’t have to be opened and you can add colors and graphics to quickly get your reader’s attention. And they don’t face spam filters like your e-mails do.
4. Versatile
With numerous options available to you regarding size and layout, you can design a card for virtually any purpose. Invitations, marketing messages, special sales, announcements, upcoming events, even mini-newsletters – all can effectively be accomplished with postcards.
5. Easily work with other marketing weapons
Postcards are a tremendous tool in tandem with other marketing activities. As an introduction before an e-mail or telephone call, or as a follow-up reinforcement after, they get attention. Properly designed postcards usually are the most remembered component when multiple marketing weapons are used.
6. Easy to track
The use of a special code on the card or a message included requesting the recipient to return it for value make postcard campaigns simple and easy to track. Leads and sales generated can easily be identified to determine the ROI for every mailing.
Postcards of course don’t guarantee marketing success. You’ve got to make good choices regarding the list, paper stock and size, colors, graphics, layout and copy. However, with careful planning and strategy, postcards can definitely increase your prospect and customer base, along with your profits
Sairam.Reallly you have given Excellent information about the Post Cards and history of it which many of us including me are unaware of many of these Sir.I am showing this to my Grand Children .Grateful thanks for such messages Sir.