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| Sunday, 5 February 2006 |
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Features |  |
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Snail mail is not dead yet by Daya Dissanayake Today, we have all become slaves of the technical revolution and got lost in the labyrinths of the IT Highway that we call ordinary mail by the term 'Snail Mail'.
This became evident when a letter, posted in Bangalore, India, with the address giving only the name of the town as Peliyagoda, without a postal code and without a mention of the country, somehow found its destination. When it was dispatched from the mail sorting centre in Bangalore, because the name of the country was not mentioned it would have been treated as a local mail with an Indian destination. Yet, in a country with over a 1000 million population and perhaps more than a hundred thousand small towns, this letter somehow found its way out of the country and into Taiwan. Why it ended up in Taiwan is a mystery, but from Taipei the letter somehow found its way to Sri Lanka and to Peliyagoda and to the correct address. It is true the letter took three months to arrive at its destination, but it nevertheless, did arrive. Had this letter been sent through one of the new technological innovations it would have got lost for ever. As a fax message it would have reached a wrong destination and got lost, as an e-mail, it might automatically have got deleted by a scam protection software or would have been ignored by the recipient, fearing it is a virus. But the ordinary letter did not go back to the sender, and reached the destination. This is why snail mail is still the best.
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| Produced by Lake House |
We complain about the inefficiency of the State run postal services in
other countries, and misplaced and long delayed letters cause headlines. But
the truth is, the old giant is still alive and breathing and active, and
will never die. We will never be able to live without snail mail. 
