The village postman (“Dakia Bhaiya” – Postman brother) was a celebrity of sorts. His popularity was primarily due to the fact that he was the only person who owned a watch, a bicycle and knew how to read and write in the whole area comprising of about ten villages. His identity was his kakhi uniform and a bag on his shoulder. My father recalled that there were only few families in the entire ten villages who had their relatives out of the village. Some preferred to work in nearby towns and some more daring one took jobs in Army and police of British Empire then. Almost all of them who had their relatives out of the village had bigger and better houses and few of them could even afford new dress during the festive seasons of Deepawali and Holi. Dakia Bhaiya also visited their homes more often providing them with money orders and letters from their relatives out of the village. Postman’s cycle was a big hit with children who ran behind the cycle whenever they saw him passing through the area. Once in a while, some lucky child would also be given a short ride on the front bar of the cycle. Children were very curious to know what he hid in his bag and kept asking him whenever they found a chance, only to get shooed away. “Dakiya Bhaiya” was also in popular demand among the men folk during the daily evening get together as he was having maximum information about other villages. He had all the information, marriage, death, new cattle in the village, a child birth, who got money from his relative from outside, who is having affair with the barber’s daughter and who has eloped with whom. In all, he was the “BBC” for the village.

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