These days major load of the postal department has been taken over by Courier services and E-Commerce and net banking. P & T has become just P . Telegram had gone redundant years back , but only recently has the Govt admitted to the fact and has closed down the service officially. Yet there are times one needs to visit these dinosaur departments once in a while.
(We actually have these ancient style post boxes at Mhow till date. This is no snap from the History Book !!)
Having filed the ITR , I had to send it by Speed post (or just drop it into the Dinosaur’s mouth)
The Post office was virtually deserted, with one or no customer at any counter. The Queue at my counter with all of one customer just would not move for over 15 minutes. There was an old man at the post, peering into his screen with a frozen look of concern and concentration. I woke him up from his reverie to learn that the server was not working and that he was ‘trying’. I also learnt that there was no manual way to book the post. It was windows trouble shooting at its best with the slogan “Re-start ; Re-install; and Re-format”. Of these an operator of a client station could resort only to the first option and that’s what he had been doing for over half an hour. I went to the post master and She for her part upgraded the trouble shooting effort. She restarted the Server !
I decided to move over to the next counter to update my PPF account and to make a deposit. Again it was a similar scene with a lady staring at a monitor screen. It was a different server.
I asked her if I could access the account online. She gave a frustrated look, “server ki wajah se to delay ho raha hai” (She was working on the server and that’s why it was taking more time) .
Later I came too know that the problem was not with the server but with the ‘served’ . She just couldn’t decipher the contents of the page she had been served. After what seemed a long long time, an all knowing youngster came to help her. He said, that a transaction has to be done to see the statement! I was asked to deposit Rs 2000. It was OK with me as that’s what I had gone there for. Challan filled, money collected and data feeding started and then came the long wait again. For some reason, the lady started calling for the ‘expert’ again . The way she repeatedly invoked the name of “Ghanshyam “, even Krishna Parmatma would have come down from his heavenly abode, but there was no sign of this Ghanshyam. There was that tone of urgency in her voice , since a ‘time out ‘ would mean refilling all the details. The pleading tone did have some effect and the help arrived.
“Submit ” button daba doon (Shall I press the submit button) Oh, it was for this confirmation that she needed an “expert” ?
Permission obtained, data submitted , both were looking keenly at the response on the monitor. How I wish I had access to the screen they were staring at! Finally, Ghanshyam informed me with an absolutely sorry look ,” Minimum amount, the system would accept would be Rs 5400, as you have not deposited for over 3 years” . Fortunately , there was an ATM of a private bank nearby,and the correct amount was deposited and the transaction was committed on the server. I am sure that was the only transaction done by that lady for the day.
As I was leaving the Post office, I just happened to glance at the Speed Post Counter to see some activity on the printer. So, the 50th restart had worked ?! I asked him if he could try now. he said in a sing song voice “Khosish karenge….. . Ho jaata …….to …bahut achcha hoga” (I’ll try and if it works, fine) . After four envelopes, when my turn came , the system hanged again. He looked at me, amused yet accusingly ,declaring that the system hanged as soon as he had fed the data pertaing to my letter! Mea Culpa !! But he was kind enough to restart again and this time it worked !
Everyone was so nice and wanting to be so helpful yet were so helpless . Now that all transactions are online , there is no looking back. So, they have no other option but to look back and yell for “GhanShyam ” or whosoever could coax a server into action on that day .