Mail man

Do you remember we had someone called a mail man back in the days before the coming of communication gadgets? I fondly remember during our school days when we used to eagerly wait for the mail in a beautiful envelopes from the mail man each week. The head teacher (principals now) or the warden those days would scan the mail received for the week and dispense to the students gathered infront of the hostel some of who received  from their beloved friends and families from different Schools. We would be really sad  and disappointed if we didn’t receive a single envelope addressed to us while other friends would receive handful. Those time it was also a usual practice to receive mail from an unknown friend seeking a friendship from different school. Oh!! how a beautiful memory! Now the world of communication is changed drastically. We have social media and messaging apps to communicate. Hardly is there so- called love letters among the girls and boys in school. Instead mobile phone calls, social media and dating apps have replaced it conveniently. I remember friends being beaten up and shamed in the morning assembly by the teachers because of their involvement in love letter exchange, imagine that was in primary school!

After coming up of gadgets like telephone, mobile phones and now smart phones, it has killed the mailing system almost to the extinction! We have emails now that takes only a fraction of second to pass information. Is there a charm? I don’t know. The very charm of mail system in those days was the fact that it was manned on his back on foot  and seeing the smiles on the face of those who received. It was a difficult specially during the monsoon season when the mail man had to overcome all the hurdles of rain, floods and swollen rivers. The mail man is a defunct post now. How sad! How sad that the children of this generation will never experience the beauty of such a system that once ruled the communication world. This is but a change we must accept ultimately. 

 If you want to experience a pinch of those bygone days, live without a mobile phone for a day. It will be hard, really hard indeed as we are all tuned to and ruled by the privilege of such gadgets. These have become the very life line of our lives. I experienced one time a few days ago, of course not by the choice but by sheer accident. I forgot my mobile charger at Thimphu the previous evening and by lunch time next day, the battery was dead. At that instant I decided to stay for one day without phone and see what it feels like without it. I decided not to borrow friend’s charger as well.  

By evening it almost felt like I was suffering from some kinda disease, like something was missing, I felt restless and impatient, even the television didn’t take my time. The day seemed too long. It was by around 9 pm that I decided to charge my phone as it reached by that the time. Such is our life without phone now. See our kids today how they easily catch up to fiddle and the time they spend with phones and tabs. It’s sad that they spend more time with such gadgets than a quality time with parents. 

Well, it can’t be argued that the invention of such gadgets have made our life better and easier, however we can’t deny the negative effects it has brought along with it. We can’t ignore the fact that some of the obvious cause of common life style disease like obesity and  depression are also very much linked. 

The post of mail man maybe a defunct one, but it has been one of the essential part of developmental process in our country. A thing to be cherished and remember.