Post Office Panache

I must admit that until last year, Chennai's Post Offices were buildings that didn't even register in my consciousness. They were all housed in unremarkable buildings and I hardly ever noticed them. However, the vast majority of people in this country do use their neighbourhood post office on a daily basis. Not just for post, but for a variety of other services as well.

So, while driving around in T Nagar some months ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lovely, gleaming white building with red accents on North Usman Road. And I was even more surprised when I realized that it was the local post office. I was bowled over by the simplicity of what they had done. It was the same old building that had always been there - they had simply painted it white and highlighted the edges of the sunshades in red. It looked neat and modern and very atttractive.

While I was impressed with one, I was completely blown away when I came across two more such 'metamorphosed' buildings. One in Adyar, the other in Alwarpet (picture above). Is it really possible that the postal department understands concepts like 'image' and 'branding' and 'presentation' ? Is it possible that they even care about such things? Well, it looks like they do! And it makes me more happy than I can say :)

I checked out their website as well, and though there's a lot of work to be done, it looks like they're genuinely trying to raise their standards. Kudos to them. Do you know of any other post offices that have received a makeover? I would love to hear about it - drop me a line at childofchennai@gmail.com or leave a comment on this post.