That would not have been the case if you were looking for someone of repute, good or bad. It would be still better if some hot shot lived next door or if there was an overflowing and smelly solid waste container around the corner for the guest to be guided with ease. During the days of the yore houses of ditthas, subbas and badahakims stood like guiding beacons. But such sure signposts are fast being replaced. These days it is easy to ask for a so-and-so of so-of-so political party; even easier if the person in question was some ex-minister cum smuggler cum kidnapper who, for reasons well known, found himself taking up residency at the sadar-khor (the cage). Even a top bureaucratic position like Sachib has lost its lustre. The oversupply has downgraded the position to “Seven rupees a Dozen” level, with the going rate of US Dime notching over Rs.7!
It is not as bewildering for those of us in Kathmandu to not know where Naradevi begins and Bhurung-khel ends. The same goes for our knowledge of localities like Pulchowk and Jhamsikhel, Sanepa and Kupundole. There are very strange names some areas of Kathmandu go with, the most obnoxious one being Khee-dhal west of Bhote Bahal. Raw sewage overflows before mingling with Bagamati. Another strange name is the place designated Maitighar. A Nepali movie involving Bombay artists and going by the same name had once set up its office in an unassuming building there. On the parapet facing the busy road was Maitighar written in Nepali. The name has since stuck as the identity of the place.
It is not strange that postmen could deliver letters even with the strangest of details on the envelope. A letter sent from Varanasi with nothing more than a hint of ghnaune chowk (smelly courtyard) in one locality seems to have done the trick. The introduction of much belated “Metric address” system has greatly improved things. Basically, it is nothing more than the distance of the house measured from the starting point, preferably a road junction. For the first time in our history every small lane in the city has been given names and each house a number. If you know the house number on a particular road you just need to check whether the nearest house number is smaller or larger than the one you are looking for. It is strange that Lalitpur and Bhaktapur have not yet followed Kathmandu’s suit.
The postal system in Nepal was never robust, probably because the postal volume was never big enough to justify vast resources. The low level of literacy inhibited generation of a huge volume of correspondence. It was, and it is still, not out of ordinary when literacy-handicapped need someone to help read and write letters for them. This phenomenon is not just limited to far-flung areas; we have as many illiterates, especially among the older generation, in the cities as well. Another reason for the poor state of postal service in earlier times was the usual difficulty associated with terrain and thinly scattered settlements. But even so there are still 893 postal outlets, big and small, in the country. It even has five digit postal PIN code that simplifies routing and identification of last postal unit responsible for delivery.
The PIN number starts from “10101” (for Rapla in Darchula) to “57512” (for Hangpang in Taplejung). The first digit (1 to 5) denotes the ranking of (erstwhile) Development Region. The next two digits stand for districts (01 to 75). The last two digits indicate varying number of postal units within each district. As can be seen Ralpa is first of the 11 in Darchula while Hangpang ranks 12 in Taplejung.
In the earlier days, to expedite delivery, it was not uncommon for Nepal-addressed items to bear details of Indian post office closest to the Nepali destination mentioned in the address. Further, it was not uncommon for someone to carry an item across the border into India and from there post it to a Nepali address. It may come as a surprise to many that there was a functioning Indian Post Office unit within the Indian Embassy compound. It certainly accepted outgoing postal items with Indian stamps but it perhaps did not deliver items to those outside diplomatic services. The above examples indicate the low level of trust on the tardy Nepali postal system in the days gone by. The system may have slightly improved but there is still a lot of room for improvement.
With the growth of internet people are getting accustomed to sending and receiving information with a click of a button. The ease of instant audio and video facilities has brought more happiness compared to reading or writing letters. Instead of addressing overall illiteracy, which was the focus of earlier times, it is now imperative to address “computer illiteracy”. For while the younger generation is computer savvy, the older generations are not.
Lastly, we saw how the spread of FM stations squeezed what little was left of the shortwave listener’s base, hot on the heels of the assault of the TV. The legendary postal system is headed in the same direction: downhill. The markets of high paying and swift service packets had long since been hijacked by courier services while emails and Facebook have eroded the rest. In a country where sick public corporations are kept alive on public money it may be too much to expect an effective and speedy service sector outlet.
harjyal@yahoo.com
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