I happened to ask a group of five years old children, what this red box might be. They thought about fire station and few other things. 

In the world of internet and social communication, I was not surprised that they did not recognise the post box, which has a history of over one hundred years. 

Even for us regular letter writing has stopped for about 20 years; most of the communication happening on e-mails or messaging and other quick access internet communication using different applications. 

What is the story of this post box! The postal system in India was connected with every village by postman or postwoman visiting to deliver letters, money orders,  parcels, etc at the door step of the addressee. The post persons were messengers linking the nation. 

We shall remember them, as many of them had to walk on foot and cross rivers or climb mountains to deliver postal articles. The reliability of this service was rated above 97 percent at one time. 

We remember a system that gave India one of its best organised public service!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)