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A red letter-box might be the perfect prop, too, given how it has disappeared from the landscape of small towns and cities. How do you tempt a generation that has never known what it is to wait for the postman’s knock, or how to cram long letters into the blue squares of an inland letter, or the crushingly slow-mo experience of queuing up to send a money order — and that has only to touch a screen to communicate to the farthest corner of the world — to the post office? The India Post thinks the answer is a café in Kolkata, a city that is itself brined in reminiscence. True, nostalgia might not matter much to the GenZ, but it sure does make for a pretty sepia filter. And so, Siuli, the parcel café, has opened shop in the general post office in the city, with a quaintly analogue décor: A mail sorting table from the 1850s, brightly coloured repurposed furniture and the spears carried by British-era runners, who strode across villages and forests to deliver mail. A red letter-box might be the perfect prop, too, given how it has disappeared from the landscape of small towns and cities.
That’s the disappearance that worries the India Post. It has one of the largest networks of post offices, but the volume of mail has declined. Two functional parcel booking counters at the café, and a one-day delivery service within the city, however, hope to give private courier agencies some competition.
Cynics might snigger that a need for the postal café has always been around. Post offices across the country habitually host restless throngs of people eagerly waiting for lunch hour to end, and who could do with a coffee or a cutlet as the afternoon draws on. But for the young, who need to learn to pay attention beyond 10 seconds of Instagram reels and YouTube shorts, the post office might be an education — in the old art of slowing down.
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