The e-mail and mobile communication have eaten away most part of the work what the General Post Office (GPO), Srinagar had been a hub for decades. There’s a 70 percent decline in the number of letters being sent through the post office while the remaining lot is addressed mostly for inmates at various jails within the state and outside.
 The GPO on the banks of the Jhelum –the fashionable Bund –used to be a hub of postal activities with people waiting for their turn in queues to send routine letters, speed-posts, or the registered mails.
 People would post their mails from the head office obviously because the delivery of the mailer would be early as compared to other post offices.
 Besides, the GPO had specialized counters for registered and speed-posts.
 But this was the scene till a decade ago. The advent of email, social networking sites and of-course the mobile and its instant SMS services have penetrated into the means of communication, the people have been using. The trend has gone vogue more so in the summer capital while other districts of Kashmir still preferring to despatch  letters because of poor or no internet access.
 “The new means of communication particularly the email and the mobiles have been responsible for the downfall of postal business,” said a senior official at the GPO adding the business had gone down by around 70 percent.
 The remaining 30 %, he said, pertained to Sarkari correspondence and mails addressed to jail inmates.
 “This is obviously because the jails inmates don’t have access to the internet and mobile services,” the official explained.
 He, however, said the parcel business at the GPO has witnessed an upward trend.
 “There has been some 40 percent rise in the parcel business in the past decade,” he said.
 Observers are of the opinion that the improvement in lifestyle through technological advancements always influences people and their culture.
 Prominent analyst and poet, late Muhammad Ashraf Saahil was always of this opinion and would say that the technological advancements would keep influencing the people.
 “These advancements  will keep changing the lifestyle and what is vogue today will be obsolete tomorrow,” the former official had remarked.
 But then the downfall in the mailing business is being seen to have some side-effects as well particularly for the Urdu knowing who would love to use the language for correspondence: the Khato Kitabat.
 Poet and a scholar at Kashmir University,  Dr Farid Parbatti said the Urdu correspondence had reached a zenith for its beautiful presentation.
 “Mailers like Khatoot-e-Ghalib had been a field of interest and research... The new technologies have not only shadowed this culture but added introduced new jargons  like Hw R U?!”

When Pakistani flag was hoisted in 1947
 Started during the Dogra rule as the Head Post Office, historian said, the facility was aimed to serve the then British Residency office in Srinagar till it subsequently picked up in the public circles.
 “This is why the office was constructed just next to the office of British Residency on the fashionable Bund,” said prominent historian, Muhammad Yusuf Taing.
 Taing, and his colleague Ghulam Nabi Khayal share interesting anecdote about the GPO.
 “In 1947 at the time of partition of India, the employees of the Head Post Office hoisted a Pakistani flag atop the building and it remained there for sometime,” the duo said.
 The old building was gutted in the post 47 era and the new building in place was constructed in ‘70s.
 Taing says there was a proposal before the GPO that it should release stamps in the memory of then popular leader Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, and famed poet Mehjoor.
 “But the proposals never saw the light of the day,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST