12 A post master’s dilemma and his kind gesture

Only a few months had gone after coming back to the campus with   our child and her mother. A telegram was received in our Calicut REC Post Office. The contents were stunning short “ MOTHER EXPIRED”. Remember it was in 1971, the only fast communication available at that time was telegrams. No mobile phones and even phone calls. For long distance calls, we had to book a call and wait for hours to get connection. Very few homes had even land phone connection. Subscribers Trunk Dialling (STD) had not been introduced, only trunk calls were available. In REC itself, there was only  two phones with trunk call facility , one in the Post Office and another in the office  of the Principal  in the main building. It was nearly impossible to use the phone in the office  of the Principal.

Coming back to the telegram addressed to me, the post master  was a gentleman  par excellence, Mr.Norman Mooliyil. He was the only person   in PO who can receive the telegrams in Morse Code or over phone from the Head Post Office in Calicut. After the  busy  hours in the  morning like sorting and sending the  postmen on their different beats, he  used to receive the telegrams after 10AM. He saw the above telegram addressed to me and since the contents was too brief and shocking, he did not want to send it through the peon. He took the telegram   in his hand personally walked up to our department. As I had joined only a few  months back, he did not personally know  me and my whereabouts. He approached Bharathan Sir and gave the telegram to him. Bharathan Sir was also  stunned  by the  curt telegram  containing such a sad news. Anyway, he took the telegram and came in search of me, sitting in the Electrical Machines Laboratory. He came to the central table where  staff members sit and called me outside. He said “Mohandas, let us have a tea at Pappachan’s”.  I was really surprised as  Bharathan Sir rarely went for tea in Pappachan’s. On the way, he started enquiring. “How is your mother, how is her health?”. I said “ Dear Sir, my mother left us when I was in 8^th standard due to some serious illness.” I saw a great relief on his face and quietly he opened the telegram and gave it to me. As I went through the telegram and saw the name of the person who sent the telegram I saw it was  my  wife’s  uncle. His mother, my wife’s grandmother, almost 80 years of age was ailing for the past two years and the message was that she had left us for ever.

As  the elderly uncle was not proficient in English  had asked  some one to send a telegram to me and the person tried to  make the message too curt for saving money as each word  costs money in a telegram. That had created problem.

But I had to salute the post master Mr. Norman Mooliyil who took all the trouble to come all the way to our office to deliver this message seemingly conveying a very sad News. Probably this will be a lesson to all who cut short the number of words to save money in sending telegrams. Now in these days of twitter, email, Instagram and WhatsApp, it is trivial, though. I take this opportunity   to give  my respects to this  great man who could  understand the feelings  of  a  son on the News of his beloved mother.