India Post: taking literature on a journey

🖊️Anushka Bagchi

Long before messages arrived with blue ticks and speech bubbles, they travelled folded inside envelopes, carrying patience and anticipation. At the 49th International Kolkata Book Fair, India Post stands testament to traditions and that older rhythm of communication.

 

As a Book Fair special, India Post has introduced their 24 hour delivery service that allows visitors to purchase books directly from the fairgrounds and send them anywhere in the country within the span of a day. The idea is to bridge literature and logistics with efficiency.

The organisation debuts new stamps every year, with the bookfair as a particular ground for this show. Officials at the stall were swamped with stamp collectors vying this year's release. “We have released two types of stamps. One is on medicinal plants and the other one is on trains, we decided to honour the Indian railways turning 100,” informed an official. Stall visitors were seen collecting not just stamps but decadent envelopes as well, “I got my hands on the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose envelope, and brought my friend to get his, but they are all sold out now,” one dejected visitor said.

 

Another quiet crowd puller happened to be the MyStamp initiative, India Post’s personalised stamp service. For a sum of ₹300, visitors can create a sheet of twelve valid postage stamps featuring their own photograph. Prepared in just five minutes and hand delivered, the stamps turn an everyday postal tool into a small personal archive.

 

At a fair devoted to words, ideas, and memory, India Post felt less like a utility and more like a companion to storytelling.