There is an interesting item in today's The Times of India about how it took a letter mailed in Anand, Gujarat to reach the addressee in Navsari 31 years - yes, you read it right. The two cities are about 200 km apart.
When received, its recipient was 'grateful' and also 'shocked'. When he read it, he was 'thrilled' as well. He also said, "I appreciate" the postal department for "preserving the letter" and then delivering.
Gratitude and shock don't go together, thrill does. Appreciation and shock? No. If the letter was well preserved, then, as the item says, why was it in tatters? If the postal official did not know where it was all these years, how does it get thanked for preserving something it did not even know was with them?
But 31 years is a long time in the life of a letter in transit. The sender did not remember why he wrote that letter but the addressee now knows. The gentleman from Anand had referred a patient to his friend, an eye specialist. We don;t know what happened to the patient and his eyesight.
The strangest part is at the end of the news item. The postal official says he was "surprised as to where the letter had been lying all these years". The reporter could easily have told him, "Sir, it was on its way".
When received, its recipient was 'grateful' and also 'shocked'. When he read it, he was 'thrilled' as well. He also said, "I appreciate" the postal department for "preserving the letter" and then delivering.
Gratitude and shock don't go together, thrill does. Appreciation and shock? No. If the letter was well preserved, then, as the item says, why was it in tatters? If the postal official did not know where it was all these years, how does it get thanked for preserving something it did not even know was with them?
But 31 years is a long time in the life of a letter in transit. The sender did not remember why he wrote that letter but the addressee now knows. The gentleman from Anand had referred a patient to his friend, an eye specialist. We don;t know what happened to the patient and his eyesight.
The strangest part is at the end of the news item. The postal official says he was "surprised as to where the letter had been lying all these years". The reporter could easily have told him, "Sir, it was on its way".
