I do not at all intend to criticize the Indian Postal Service, I think its a tremendously admirable entity, which has been working efficiently from more than a hundred and fifty years. They have been delivering letters and articles in the remotest areas of the country and the humble post man is the most affectionate and helpful character, at least as shown in Hindi cinema (my personal experience would vary a little, only a little). But nevertheless they have been working continuously to bring people closer, binding the love ties between lovers who were separated with miles between them, long before Skype, iphone and cheap flight rates came into picture to make long distance relationships easier ( I'll write more on this later).
So, to move ahead with the original story, what exactly happened was that I was required to attain this precious document which is equivalent to a small sum of money (with a ten percent fee) to apply for a certain government work. My first action was to ask my brother to go to the local post office and get it as I had to go to work and he had a long day of weekend to get bored. Now I know, I should have been worried in the beginning as he said yes to do the work without me begging first and then shouting. And so I got dressed and went to office happily. At about eleven o' clock my dear obliging brother called me up to say that he is in the post office and what exactly is it that I want, because post office clerk does not know what IPO is! I told him calmly that it is Indian Postal Order, as it was mentioned in the required documents list for that particular task, and I want one worth 100 Rupees. I disconnected the phone thinking now he should get it. After two minutes my brother called again to say that they don't have it and are not sure whether they will have it on Monday or not, and thus started my search to acquire this paper called IPO. This information put me in the search mode to find out about it, I told my brother that I'll call him in a while and tell him what to do. The first thing I did was to announce in my office if anybody knew what an IPO is and how to get it. As always nobody knew what it was but my colleague sitting next to me was really interested in knowing why did I want it!
Anyways, Google came to rescue me as I typed in the words, hoping to find an answer for my search. what happened afterwards was not a happy development, as I saw the words Indian, Postal and Order highlighted in several places but nowhere together. So I added the 'form' to make it more clear, again no relevant answer. I clicked on a few links to seek help, but to no avail. (I took a long breath). Then I typed the full question- What is Indian postal order and how can I get it?' Again nothing fruitful but more words highlighted, hither and thither, telling me that if you file a RTI (Right to Information application) you'll need one. Therefore I kept seeking a way to find some clue to obtain the precious government money transformer.
I decided to look for some help on the Indian Post's website, which is pretty snazzy compared to other government departments' websites- the ones which have the latest last year news updated in some florescent colour, blinking rapidly to make you notice it (see now I am criticizing) and the words keep blinking in front of you long after closing the page! But this one is different, it is well organized, neatly presented giving information about all services, etc. except about the IPO mystery. Or maybe I am not savvy enough to find it in the correct manner. So I took a left turn and tried to find the nearest post office around my office through the 'pin code finder'. Voila, I found a list of all the nearby post offices and they have links with which I could find the contact details. YAY! I acted promptly and called the nearest one up to ask if they had the IPO, the man who answered the phone inquired about it and said they do have it but they are subject to availability, and the office will close at 2 o' clock as it is Saturday. Poor me, I could not leave the office at that time, so I called my brother again to ask for his help, who now was not very happy about extending the favour and said that it will be crowded there and he had no intention to bear so much pain for something so silly. Also he cribbed about government asking for such useless papers and not accepting bank drafts like everyone else. Well he was right, so I pleaded with him to help me. He said a reluctant 'ok' and disconnected.
As the last resort I searched the post office nearer to my brother on the Indian Post's website as fast as I could so that he wouldn't have to travel very far, called them and asked them about the IPO. The man on the other line said that they have only one left and the office will close in next five minutes, so I should be there before that. Next thing I did was to call my brother again and asked him to go to this one as fast as he could. After that I did not hear anything from my brother and got busy with my work. I reached home in the evening and there it was, lying on the table in all its majesty. And thus ended my day of learning about the IPO.
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