How silence made communication louder for this postwoman in Alappuzha

For the people of Alappuzha, postwoman Merin G Babu is a picture of positivity. She is mute and communicates through sign language. Merin who was born deaf, and mute joined the Mararikulam Pollethai post office last November. But within a short span of time, she won over the people of the locality.

Many were skeptical about how a deaf and mute person would be able to do a job that requires a lot of verbal communication with people. But it didn’t take much time for the people to understand Merin’s language and connect with her.

Merin, the daughter of Babu Varghese and Alexi Babu of Kollam Kottarakkara Kochuchamakala house, graduated in Computer Science from Govt. Polytechnic College, Thiruvananthapuram and worked there as a lab assistant for 3 years. In 2017, she married MS Preejith, a native of Paravoor, Kollam. Preejith couldn’t speak or hear. Merin also worked in a private telecom company for a year after leaving college. And later she applied for the position of postwoman.

During the first month of joining, Merin's father, mother, sister, or Preejith used to accompany her to help. Once she became familiar with the locals, she started delivering posts alone. Preejith works at Kochi Info Park. They have a son called Danny.