Book Review : The Post Office Buildings of India

 

The Post Office Buildings of India

By Sushil Mehra and K. Chaitanya Dev

The Post Office Buildings of India By Sushil Mehra and K. Chaitanya Dev : Pages : 170 : Type :  Paperback - Coffee Table Book Publisher : Sushil Mehra : Price : Rs 2000 : ISBN Number : 978-93-340-4689-2

 Available at Amazon or contact author : email : gaureshmehra@gmail.com

A Post Office is a public facility that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices also offer additional services. These include providing and accepting government forms (such as passport applications), and processing government services and fees (such as road tax, postal savings, or bank fees etc.).

In India, post offices are found in almost every village having panchayat (a "village council"), towns, cities, and throughout the geographical area of India. India's postal system changed its name to India Post after the advent of private courier companies in the 1990s. It is run by the Indian government's Department of Posts. India Post accepts and delivers letters, postcards, parcels, postal stamps, and money orders (money transfers). Many post offices in India offer speed post (fast delivery) and payments or bank savings services.

Above all the Post office is a place from where the ‘philately’ starts… For a philatelist, it is a very important place as well as for a common man. Many of the General Post Office, Head Post Offices and Sub Post Offices are now the heritage buildings of India with exquisite designs of architecture.

The book, 'The Post Office Buildings of India" by Sushil Mehra and K. Chaitanya Dev is  a wonderful book featuring several post office buildings located in different parts of India. Some of them are heritage buildings. It gives special mention of ‘The Post Office’ stamp issued by India Post in 2008 which features a scene from a play ’The Post Office” by Rabindranath Tagore. Rabindranath Tagore's 1912 play, 'The Post Office', about Amal, an eight-year-old boy who is terminally ill confined indoors by the family physician. His only contact with the outside world is through his window. Amal notices the village post office. He fantasizes about receiving a letter from the king or being a postman.

 

 

There are two special articles in the book “Postal Circles and Postal Buildings’ by Dr. Charles Lobo, Member (Operations) Postal Services Board (Retd.) and ‘Lake Bridge Post Office’, Nainital by noted philatelist Mr Abhai Mishra. The book features the magnificent buildings of GPO and HPO Buildings and other important post office buildings of all the Postal Circles of India through Postage stamps, First Day Covers, Special Covers, Self-Designed Covers and Post Cards. Special Chapters have been given to Army Postal Circle, Antarctica and Universal Postal Union. In the last chapter, the book gives the statistics of Post offices in India state wise.

The design and layout of the book is excellent.  The book is an asset for every philatelist and stamp lover as the book features several pictures of the Post office buildings where they often visited or had seen during their visit to that place or city. The book gives a great idea for the philatelists to develop a wonderful exhibit on the theme of ‘Post offices’ as lot of philatelic material is available on this theme. I recommend this book to people from all walks of life. They will find it very interesting and informative.

 About the authors

- Jeevan Jyoti