The Post Office Adventure

The Malviya Nagar Post Office was the site of an interesting adventure for us this week. It is an example of even doing ordinary life tasks in a cross-cultural setting proving adventurous.

Here's Janis' story...

Ok, the trip this morning to the post office to send rupees to the family from Mussoorie to help with their train tickets for their visit here, was THE weirdest experience I’ve had in India - (other than the time Nicole and I stopped two thugs from beating up our auto driver). This was my 5th trip this week to the post office to do this one “simple” procedure!

So I go into the building, see a long line of people for the window I need - for sending money orders, posting packages and other more time intensive kinds of procedures right? So unlike everyone else who came in AFTER me, I quietly went and stood at the END of the long line to obediently wait my turn, like my home culture has taught me, right? (BTW I was the only foreigner present :)). The people who came in after me would take a look at the long line and then proceed to worm their way up to the window they needed. Thankfully, most were unsuccessful (or I'd STILL be in line!) because of one vocal guy who would yell at them to get into the line. So all this goes on for at least 30 minutes and I am finally the 3rd or 4th person from the window. Suddenly the line behind me of about 30 or more men (I am the only woman in line) go into a yelling, pushing and shoving match, leaving the line and trying to get to the window. The vocal guy is now not being listened to so I yell in my most eloquent Hindi - "Ji na he! Wappas!" about 5 times and all the men go back to their respective places in the line. Can you believe it? I was shocked! Maybe because of being a foreigner, or a woman, or old, but most likely it was your prayers - but for some reason they listened and I was then quickly helped by the man at the window too! Amazing!

So thanks for your prayers!!! I am sure they made a difference today - oh yeah, I didn't mention how the printer stopped working when it was printing out my receipt and that took about 10 minutes and three people messing with it, but it suddenly just started working on it's own, right after I began to specifically pray about it. He is so good!

Chuck's experience: while Janis was having this adventure inside the Post Office, Chuck was waiting outside with an interesting experience of his own...

While Janis was busily organizing the queue inside, I was sitting on the curb outside holding our bags for the journey to the Gallery and watching the comings and goings. One such event was the postman collecting mail from the bins thoughtfully and carefully placed on the street in front of the Post Office. There are at least fifteen separate slots labeled for mail to various cities around India. Each slot leads to a separate bin. The bins are accessed from the other side by five double doors. I watched the postman opening the doors and collecting the mail from the various slots/bins and putting it all into one large, unsorted bag.

Doing life here in India continues to be an adventure for us, even in the ordinary tasks as we try to sort through differences in cultures - attempting to identify when things are simply different, not wrong.