What a day! Today is an important day for everything and everyone associated with the postal service. It is World Post Day — a day to celebrate the significance of the postal service in our everyday lives.
The Universal Postal Union was established on October 9, 1874 and that is why World Post Day is celebrated on this day every year. I bet you didn’t know that.
Who am I? My name is Stampath, and I’m a postage stamp that has been lying in a corner of one of the countless drawers in the General Post Office (GPO) at Rajaji Salai, Chennai. Did you know that the Chennai GPO was first established in Fort St. George Square in 1786? Later, in 1884, it was moved to its present day site — a magnificent red painted structure of Indo-Saracenic architecture, which is a combination of Indian, Indo-Muslim, Gothic and Victorian style — developed by the British. It was designed by the British architect Robert Chisholm, who also designed the Presidency College in Madras, the Post and Telegraph office in Ooty and Napier Museum in Thiruvananthapuram among other structures around the country.
Storyteller stamp
I have many stories to tell, as do each and every thing in this universe. All these things have a glorious history that makes for a great read. Today, I will tell you what my brothers and sisters have written to me about some of the colonial post offices in India that they have travelled to.
Kolkata General Post Office
It is one of the most significant landmarks in the city of Kolkata, my brother Stampendra tells me. It is situated in Netaji Subhas Road in B.B.D Bagh, formerly Dalhousie Square. B.B.D. stands for Benoy, Badal and Dinesh, three revolutionaries who shot dead the Inspector General of Prisons, N.S. Simpson at Dalhousie Square in 1930. What a bloody history these streets possess! Anyway, what sets this building apart is its high domed roof and Corinthian columns, which was designed by Walter Grenville in 1864. A postal museum was also additionally built to display postal artefacts and stamps. Stampendra got all this information from the elderly Mr. Chatterjee to whom the letter, on which he was stuck, was sent!
Shimla General Post Office
Stampoorna, my sister, had the chance to travel to the capital of Himachal Pradesh. How lucky! She tells me that the Shimla GPO is one of the oldest post offices in the country, established in 1883. Situated on Mall Road, near Conny Lodge, it is a three-storeyed timber and stone structure with a tin roof. In 1972, a massive fire broke out on the ground floor and destroyed many records. Following this, the post office was renovated. It recently got a makeover with beautiful red and white paint. I didn’t quite understand what she meant by “English hill architecture”, but you can, when you go there someday.
Mumbai General Post Office
Stampesh, my brother, can’t shut up about Mumbai. He is proudly sitting among other stamps in the collection of a middle-aged philatelist. Boy, does he have a lot of stories to tell! He tells me often about the first time he arrived in Mumbai. He was delivered among many letters and postcards at the huge domed structure, which is another great example of the Indo-Saracenic architecture. He then made his way to a stamp collector's collection. Stampesh told me that the Mumbai GPO was in the Flora Fountain area before being shifted to its current site at St. George Road near Victoria Terminus or Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. It was designed by the British architect John Begg in 1902, but the construction was complete only in 1913.
Wouldn’t you like to know more about us and the places we have been to? We have so much more to tell. You can either visit the closest philately museum or dig more information from stamp collectors or your local post office.
