Story of an undelivered Postcard

I was reading an article in the newspaper. (An activity I used to happily indulge in but can’t nowadays; Life changes you in many ways).

The article was about post offices and letters. While it was giving the age-old post offices their due share of appreciation, on the ending note it said that nowadays who will deliver a parcel half paid for……

It reminded me of a recent setback I had to face.

I often indulge in artistic activities. So, the idea of sending a hand-made birthday postcard to a friend occurred to me. I asked my sibling to bring one postcard for me. She brought two. On asking the reason she told that a postcard costs 0.50 paisa that's why two of it for one rupee.

I was amazed at the lowly cost in today’s time, but then a postcard is open enough for everyone to see what message it contains. After all, it costs you your privacy, I thought to myself. Who wants to hide a piece of art anyway, you never know it can bring a smile to the face of the person delivering it – the postman.

So, I handwrote the birthday greetings with designs here and there. Then I happily paved my way to the nearest post office, duly getting an assurance from the employee seated behind the desk that they do get delivered. 'It may take 5-6 days but yes we deliver them.' I dropped my ‘art’icle in the postbox, two weeks in advance of the birthday.

D-day arrived, on getting no acknowledgement regarding the receipt of the postcard from the birthday guy, I sent a soft copy of the same through Whatsapp which delivered it within a second. Later on, on asking about the whereabouts of the postcard I had posted, the person said, ‘I have not received any,’ ‘No, seriously.’

Now I’m left with only an image of the postcard and this incident to tell about.

‘Shhhh! Stop bashing our department’ are the cries I hear from my siblings who serve in THE department and are hell buried under the load of work. ‘Such a hullabaloo over a petty issue.’

‘So what if your unimportant postcard could not be delivered. You should’ve mailed it in a proper envelope with postage stamps on it. Who sends a postcard in today’s time.’