London, Oct 19: Christmas is a few weeks away but some Britons travelling to India have started carrying hundreds of cards that they will post in India to friends and family back home here.
The reason? It is cheaper and more reliable to send cards from India rather than from within Britain, thanks to problems faced by Royal Mail that deals with the annual avalanche of Christmas cards and the high price of postage.
So don`t be surprised if you see British citizens queuing up in post offices in India to post Christmas cards to friends and family in Britain.
They have discovered that the doughty Indian postal system - set up during the colonial era - is a more reliable and cheaper alternative.
Kathy Miller, who runs The Neem Tree Trust, a charity organisation focused on disadvantaged children in Tamil Nadu, had a pleasant experience with the Indian postal system when she visited India last year.
She took along her charity Christmas cards designed by the children her organisation supports. Her original idea was to write the Christmas cards there, bring them back to Britain and post them in December.
But while in India, she discovered that if the envelopes were left unsealed, the cost of sending a card from India to Britain was Rs 8. If the same cards were posted in Britain, one can save 21 pounds for 150 cards.
Miller posted the cards in India, and they duly arrived at their addresses in Britain a week later. Her friends here were delighted to receive cards from India, and some even suggested that next year she take their own lot of Christmas cards to India to post.
Miller told a news agency that her experience was not a criticism of Royal Mail, but she had heard of people going to India for dental treatment and medical treatment, but wondered if others had taken advantage of the "excellent and inexpensive Indian postal system".
Miller added, "I`m intending to visit India again this November and of course will be taking my Christmas cards with me."
There have been several instances when Britons travelling to India for other purposes at this time of the year used their trips to carry their Christmas cards along and post them in India instead of in Britain.
Every year, there is a welter of complaints about Royal Mail losing millions of Christmas cards and parcels. It may not be too long before entrepreneurs come up with the idea of "postal outsourcing" from India.
Every Christmas, Royal Mail delivers nearly two billion items within Britain. Last year were complaints following two million cards and presents being lost by Royal Mail workers.
Your comment(s) on this article
The genius of some Britons may have seen Indian post as a reliable alternative to British post but I think the British (as everyone else the world over) must collectively ask themselves why send greeting cards at all for Christmas or any other day? Greeting cards have become a formality and most of us have become trapped in this formality. - K.Venugopal - Mumbai
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