Seethamony runs a post office single-handedly

Alappuzha: The floods inundated the only post office functioning in the remote R. Block of Kainakary panchayat in Kuttanad, where only 31 residents are currently staying. But the lone employee in the post office, V.P. Seethamony, 54, who has been serving it since October 7, 1989, has courageously fought the heavy odds and saved valuable documents from total destruction. Seethamony, who is now the branch postmistress, stays two km away from the office in R. Block which covers 1,500 acres.

She has to travel by a country boat daily from her house to the office located on a small island in the block. She herself rows the boat through the Vembanad lake when there are no other passengers.

Seethamony is the fourth employee since the inception of Vembanad kayal branch in 1976 with the pin code 688006, and she has the rare distinction of running a post office single-handed.

The single-room office has a cupboard, a table and two chairs apart from a few files.  Though the building bears the scars of floods, she does her work unmindful of the devastation.

Her residence stands in floodwater for the last three months and she lives in a tent at Puthuchira of R. Block along with four other families.  Seethamony said she saved all the files from the office during the floods by taking them to her house and keeping them in the upper space.

Government notices to Padasekhara samithies, pan cards, ATM cards and periodicals are the main mails she handles daily. The letters and notices of families which fled from R. Block still reach there and she has the contact numbers of all of them.

None from outside R.Block would prefer to work there due to the lack of travel facilities and geographical disadvantages. However, youngsters in and around of R. Block may be willing to take up up her post when she retires in two years.

The people here seldom come to send letters, but a lot of government notifications come to the residents about beneficiary schemes and farming techniques. There is no money order as the people prefer banks. The official working hours are from 10.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. by when the ferry boat, which takes mails to Alappuzha head office, passes in front of the office. She remains in the office till evening. Seethamony’s husband Kunjumon is a conductor in a private bus and they have no children.