Mussoorie (Uttarakhand): World Post Day is celebrated each year on 9 October globally to commemorate the establishment of Universal Postal Union (UPU) in Switzerland in 1874.
The purpose of World Post Day is to create awareness of the role of the postal sector in people’s and businesses’ everyday lives and its contribution to the social and economic development of countries.
On this occasion, ETV Bharat met a famous philatelist from Mussorie Gopal Bhardwaj who has a collection of postage stamps of various countries most dating back to the1800s.
Speaking exclusively to ETV Bharat, Bhardwaj said that postal service is as important as it was 40-50 years ago.
He said "Dating back to1828 during the British rule, letters were sent to England from Mussoorie and it was then a six months-long process. Earlier, all the letters were collected at 'Dak Pathar' in Dehradun and then were sent to Saharanpur. From there, letters were delivered to their respective places."
The 70-year old historian says that today in the age of the internet people can connect easily but it was not easy back then.
"Social media platforms have connected the world globally but postal service has its own significance," he added.
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