Messenger of memories: A postman is sole link between Chooralmala & its former residents

Chooralmala residents have stopped coming to their landslide-ravaged land but not the letters addressed to them. Every day, on an average, 40-50 letters reach the Vellarmala Post Office that functions right behind the abandoned Vellarmala Government Higher Secondary School. (Vellarmala is the Wayanad village under which falls the landslide-ruined wards of Chooralmala, Mundakkai and Attamala.)

The post office, a single-room shed cluttered with wooden desks, plastic chairs and cupboards, is the only government office functioning in the largely deserted area. All other government institutions, including the school and even the village office, have been shifted to safer unaffected places. And besides the scanty police presence, the postmaster, Shalini, and the postman, Manikantan, are the only government officials in the area.

The letters that arrive in large numbers for the former residents of Chooralmala ward are not personal letters but come from important central and state government offices like the Income Tax, Unique Identification Authority of India, the Ministry of External Affairs, Kerala Motor Vehicle Department, the Regional Transport Office and the like. "These letters contain important documents like PAN Card, passport, Aadhar card, and driver's licence. These are lost documents that are being re-issued to the original addresses of the applicants. These should be delivered to them without fail," Shalini said. Not just such citizenship-affirming documents, at times, even motor vehicle fines for not using helmets or speeding also reach the post office.

The trouble is, the nearly 500 families who lived in Chooralmala are now in rented houses scattered far away from the limits of the Vellarmala Post Office. Some families are housed in areas like Arappatta and Panamaram, that are 35-40 km from Chooralmala. Even the nearest place where displaced families are accommodated, Meppadi, is 15 km from Chooralmala.

Rather than ask the addressees to reach the Vellarmala post office, Manikantan has taken it upon himself to deliver the letters to them. Delivery beyond his post office limit is not his job. His responsibility ends with calling up the recipients and informing them of the letters. He can ask them to collect it from the post office.

"I thought it'll be of great help if I personally deliver these letters. I know people who are afraid to return to this devastation," Manikantan said. "Moreover, I live in Meppadi," he said. He has his roots in Chooralmala but had shifted to Meppadi with his family a few years back.

The suggestion that being in Meppadi made it easy for him was modesty. Manikantan travels every month to Panamaram, 40 km away, to collect the premium money from an old woman for her Rural Postal Life Insurance scheme.

He clubs this trip with the delivery of letters along the way. But for the old woman, he will have to make a quick return trip. After depositing the money in the post office, he has to return the book. The same two-way travel - collection of money and return of the passbook after deposit - has to be undertaken for those with recurring post office deposits and living in rented houses at far-flung areas like Kalpetta, Karappuzha and Vadavanchal.

Though post office operations are mobile-enabled, Manikantan still has to manually deposit the money because the mobile device of the Vellarmala post office was spoiled. "As a rule, the mobile device has to be kept in the postmaster's (Shalini) house. Her house was caught in the landslide," Manikantan said. Shalini and her family had a narrow escape. The house next to hers was fully damaged and had two deaths.

"Now, without the device, we manually deposit the money of our Chooralmala clients in the Meppadi post office," Manikantan said.

For the displaced living in Meppadi, Manikantan has devised a convenient arrangement to hand over the letters. It is in Meppadi that nearly 60% of the Chooralmala residents are rehabilitated. "Whoever has to be delivered a letter, I call and ask them to reach a common area, the bus stand or the library," Manikantan said. In this case, the letters are just an excuse for former Chooralmala residents to get together for an hour or two and speak about the days before the landslide. "Before, it was usual for us to sit together and have idle conversations after work," Manikantan said. Though he lives in Meppadi, Manikantan had spent most of his time in Chooralmala till the landslide struck.

It is after lunch that Manikantan begins his errands. At 4 pm on November 7, Onmanorama found Manikantan at the Meppadi Government Higher Secondary School. It is in the premises of this school that space has been temporarily found to resume the education of the 420-odd students that was disrupted when the landslide ravaged the Vellarmala school. There are now two schools in one campus.

Manikantan was at the school to hand over an official letter to Dileep Kumar, the headmaster of the Vallaramala school. It was in Vellarmala School that Manikantan had also studied.

By around 6.30 pm, he was found near the Meppadi bus stop. "I am waiting for a friend who had gone to Nilambur to meet his mother. I have his passport with me. He needs it today itself," Manikantan said.