Sabarimala (Kerala): It is a unique post office, and
one of its main tasks is to deliver letters to God.
Located near the famed Hindu temple at the
Sabarimala hills, the post office may perhaps be the only one in the country
which doesn't work round the year.
It comes alive when the peak pilgrimage season of the Ayyappa shrine begins on
the first day of the Malayalam month in November, and the period ends towards
the middle of January.
The post office is also open for 10 days during the Vishu season.
Functioning six days a week from 8 in the morning to 8 at night, the six
employees, led by 23-year-old Sai G Prakash, have a lot to do.
Prakash is happy to be here, and says he was a devotee of Lord Ayyappa.
"Our post office mostly gets invitation cards for weddings and shop
openings addressed to Lord Ayyappa, obviously to seek divine blessings,"
Prakash said.
Most such mail come from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, he said.
But the three letter boxes kept in the temple complex get more than post cards
and envelopes.
Every morning, the staff find scores of identity cards and wallets too in them.
"We make it a point to mail these cards to the individuals
concerned," Prakash said.
The employees often spend their own money to do this.
"Since this season began, I have posted close to 20 PAN cards to the
income tax office," Prakash added.
Police say all this is the work of pickpockets who operate in the temple town
-- crowded during the pilgrimage season. The criminals pocket the money
from the wallets and dump the cards -- and wallets -- in the post boxes.
Situated in the mountain ranges of the Western Ghats at 914 metres above sea
level, the Sabarimala temple is four kilometres uphill from Pamba in
Pathanamthitta district, around 100 km from Thiruvananthapuram.
The temple is accessible only on foot from Pamba.
During the last pilgrimage season, more than 4.5 million devotees visited the
shrine.
This season the authorities expect a 10 percent increase.
A feature of the post office is the special pictorial cancellation stamp of the
18 steps that led to the Lord Ayyappa shrine.
"Some devotees come and buy covers or cards and write their own address
and post them here. This is their souvenir," said Prakash.
The post office helps pilgrims to post 'appom' and 'aravana' (the temple prasad
Of the six employees, three walk down the hill daily carrying the outgoing mail
on their heads. When they walk up, they carry bags of mail -- mostly addressed
to Lord Ayyappa.
"Overall we enjoy what we do here. We are very happy we got this
posting," said Prakash.
State News Desk
