On World Post Day in October, I’m going to Hikkim. Don’t confuse it with Sikkim. They are 1,745 km apart. Hikkim lies in the desert mountains of Himachal Pradesh’s Spiti Valley, 14,567 feet above sea level. It is a tiny village of around 150 Tibetan Buddhists that gets cut off from the rest of the world when winter turns severe. Temperatures plunge to a freezing -20°C, the roads are snowbound and the village is left in splendid isolation.
In the midst of these serene mountains and windswept valleys, through which rivers snake and shimmer, stands the World’s Highest Post Office. Curiously and charmingly, it is shaped like a giant red postbox, sitting amid the barren, moon-like landscape of Spiti as though it had been dropped there by a whimsical storyteller.
The post office has been run by the same postmaster since its inception in 1983, a doughty Tibetan named Rinchen Chhering, who is as rugged as the landscape itself. Originally a small building, it was redesigned in 2022 into this oversized postbox. For years it served as a mail distribution centre and held the savings accounts of local residents.
Today, the Hikkim Post Office is one of Spiti Valley’s major attractions and even has three dedicated selfie points. When the roads are open, tourists queue up to enter. This influx of visitors has boosted local tourism, benefiting homestays, taxi operators and vendors of local products. The post office sells postcards and stamps worth thousands of rupees every day.
Getting there is an adventure. The snow-capped mountain air is thin, and visitors often become breathless and dizzy while climbing, some needing oxygen cylinders to continue. Yet they do, because the post office stirs in them memories of the old ritual of letter writing. They mail postcards to family, friends and to themselves. The cards arrive bearing the magical seal of the World’s Highest Post Office.
I do this, too. Wherever I travel, I look for the familiar red postbox, its mouth yawning invitingly open. In foreign cities the postboxes are often painted in cheerful colours. I photograph them like old friends. And I buy postcards and mail them to myself. Just to hear the soft ‘plop’ when the postman drops them through my door a week or two later. So I am looking forward to visiting the Hikkim Post Office and meeting its long-serving postmaster. I shall mail a postcard from there to myself, so that it arrives bearing the stamp: “Hikkim, 4440 m. World’s Highest Post Office.”
About Mark Manuel
The above thoughts/content has been proudly copied from the wall of Sir Mark Manuel. Being interviewing almost every role model of this country and going stronger each day. Mark Manuel is a respected Mumbai editor, writer, and columnist.
With over three decades of journalism in leading publications. This includes the Free Press Journal, Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Mid-Day, and Afternoon. He is famous for his brilliant pen interviews. He himself is a TEDx speaker.
Further
His interviews have featured in several leading media houses. They include the Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, BBC, and Network 18. Almost every famous person has been interviewed by him in the country from Mother Teresa to Muhammad Ali. His first book is just out. It’s titled Moryaa Re! It is a crime thriller that is perhaps the country’s first police procedural. He began his career covering crime. And in a tribute to his experience and knowledge of this beat.
Several distinguished officers of the Mumbai Police and its Crime Branch collaborated with him to make this book possible. Amitabh Bachchan wrote the forward in a statement of friendship for Mark Manuel and admiration for his work.
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