Last year at the Hornbill Festival I bought a wood plate (asükhu in Sumi) and tried to send it to Singapore.
The parcel was never delivered, even though I paid for registered mail at the India Post office here in Kohima. Why? They didn't give me the customs forms to fill in, and it didn't occur to me at the time either (you expect post offices to know this sort of stuff).
And this was the state in which the parcel was sent back to my friend's address. The packaging had never been good to begin with, but the cloth looked filthy and the box was bulging more than when I sent it off.
On opening the parcel, I found the sides of the plate had chipped.
So I bought a new, slightly smaller, wood plate at this year's Hornbill Festival. It was nicer than the one I bought last year but this is more ornamental because the top surface is polished, as opposed to last year's one which one could still eat out of.
I then walked around NST Road looking for cellophone, banner cloth and red sealing wax. I also got a box from Cana's stall that day and with the help of my friends spent a hours that evening packaging the new wood plate. We used lots of styrofoam and newspaper, but the sewing bit and melting the sealing wax took ages. I find the concept of sending cloth-wrapped and wax-sealed parcels in India slightly outdated - what's wrong with a cardboard box and cellotape?
In any case, voilà, this was what the finished parcel looked like (before I'd written down the destination and return-to-sender addresses all over the box.)
So the next morning, which happened to be the final day of the Hornbill Festival, I got to the post office, happy with the packaging and ready to send it off.
The lady at the counter gave it one look and said I couldn't the parcel, because of the cloth packaging.
I was confused and indignant - since I started visiting India, I've been told me every time at the post office to go through the whole tedious process of getting my parcels wrapped and stitched up. And now that I'd gone through the effort to do it, this lady was telling me they wouldn't accept. What's more, everyone around me was still sending their parcels cloth-wrapped and wax-sealed.
According to her, it was a recent directive that all international parcels had to be in 'carton boxes' without cloth packaging. She then pointed at a sign somewhere in the office that apparently stated this, but my eyes never found it. She then said I needed to remove the cloth covering, write the address on a piece of paper and paste it on the box.
It sounds simple enough, except: (a) I had no stationery on me so I would have had to go down the hill to look for a shop, while carrying the parcel; (b) it would have taken me at least an hour to get everything done and the line at the post office was only getting longer (and I really wanted to get back to Kisama that day); and (c) I had gone through the bloody effort of packaging the box according to what are the usual requirements in India! I'm not even sure that another office in a different city would even be following these new directives.
So what did I do? I put on my 'most pathetic foreigner' (I'm not proud of it, but sometimes it's the only way to get what you want.) Eventually, some kind lady directed me to the back office to speak with the 'Ma'am' on duty. I explained the situation to her and she said kindly that the problem was foreign countries didn't like the cloth packaging (quelle surprise) because they were worried about the spread of infections! However, since I'd gone through the effort of packaging it, they would accept my parcel this time. However, in future I should just package it in a carton box with cellotape (mais avec plaisir Madame).
Triumphant, I returned to the first counter I went to, and after 25 minutes of waiting around again, managed to send it off, customs forms filled in and all.
So now, Singapore Post, you better bloody well accept the parcel!
The parcel was never delivered, even though I paid for registered mail at the India Post office here in Kohima. Why? They didn't give me the customs forms to fill in, and it didn't occur to me at the time either (you expect post offices to know this sort of stuff).
And this was the state in which the parcel was sent back to my friend's address. The packaging had never been good to begin with, but the cloth looked filthy and the box was bulging more than when I sent it off.
On opening the parcel, I found the sides of the plate had chipped.
So I bought a new, slightly smaller, wood plate at this year's Hornbill Festival. It was nicer than the one I bought last year but this is more ornamental because the top surface is polished, as opposed to last year's one which one could still eat out of.
I then walked around NST Road looking for cellophone, banner cloth and red sealing wax. I also got a box from Cana's stall that day and with the help of my friends spent a hours that evening packaging the new wood plate. We used lots of styrofoam and newspaper, but the sewing bit and melting the sealing wax took ages. I find the concept of sending cloth-wrapped and wax-sealed parcels in India slightly outdated - what's wrong with a cardboard box and cellotape?
In any case, voilà, this was what the finished parcel looked like (before I'd written down the destination and return-to-sender addresses all over the box.)
So the next morning, which happened to be the final day of the Hornbill Festival, I got to the post office, happy with the packaging and ready to send it off.
The lady at the counter gave it one look and said I couldn't the parcel, because of the cloth packaging.
I was confused and indignant - since I started visiting India, I've been told me every time at the post office to go through the whole tedious process of getting my parcels wrapped and stitched up. And now that I'd gone through the effort to do it, this lady was telling me they wouldn't accept. What's more, everyone around me was still sending their parcels cloth-wrapped and wax-sealed.
According to her, it was a recent directive that all international parcels had to be in 'carton boxes' without cloth packaging. She then pointed at a sign somewhere in the office that apparently stated this, but my eyes never found it. She then said I needed to remove the cloth covering, write the address on a piece of paper and paste it on the box.
It sounds simple enough, except: (a) I had no stationery on me so I would have had to go down the hill to look for a shop, while carrying the parcel; (b) it would have taken me at least an hour to get everything done and the line at the post office was only getting longer (and I really wanted to get back to Kisama that day); and (c) I had gone through the bloody effort of packaging the box according to what are the usual requirements in India! I'm not even sure that another office in a different city would even be following these new directives.
So what did I do? I put on my 'most pathetic foreigner' (I'm not proud of it, but sometimes it's the only way to get what you want.) Eventually, some kind lady directed me to the back office to speak with the 'Ma'am' on duty. I explained the situation to her and she said kindly that the problem was foreign countries didn't like the cloth packaging (quelle surprise) because they were worried about the spread of infections! However, since I'd gone through the effort of packaging it, they would accept my parcel this time. However, in future I should just package it in a carton box with cellotape (mais avec plaisir Madame).
Triumphant, I returned to the first counter I went to, and after 25 minutes of waiting around again, managed to send it off, customs forms filled in and all.
So now, Singapore Post, you better bloody well accept the parcel!
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