Decorations are almost anachronistic. The flex poster of the Ajanta Apsara stands in defiant contrast to the cafe’s pop colour scheme. However, there is something strangely comforting about India’s first post office cafe. There is not much that Siuli, a parcel cafe housed in the magnificent General Post Office of Kolkata, needs to charm its patrons. It simply exists. The streets of Dalhousie Square, Kolkata’s made-for-Instagram-reels square, are bursting with activity. Formerly, this was the white town of British Calcutta, where natives had restricted access.
Having people come to the post office is important to us. ‘That’s why we thought a place could be dedicated to parcel-booking, packaging, gift-packing, same-day delivery in selected locations and also have a café there, in order to attract the younger generation to the post office,’ says Niraj Kumar, Postmaster-General of Kolkata Region. The place is called the ‘Parcel Cafe’
‘Siuli the parcel cafe’ has a well-appointed panel counter that customers can use. It also houses a gift and curio shop. ‘We have everything from philately (stamp collecting) albums to silver trinkets. We also sell packaged Ganga water from Gangotri here. They sell like hot cakes,’ says an attendant of the cafe named Kumar. A fascinating aspect of the cafe is that all the furniture has been repurposed. Kumar reports that they were able to repair old tables and chairs for their cafe.
Therefore, an old sorting table with attached shelves from the 1850s finds pride of place in the cafe. The sorter sits in a high chair while dividing the letters into zones. Old spears used by runners hang on the walls. Letters were delivered by dad runners during the British era. The runners would literally carry bags full of letters and parcels from town to town and village to village. ‘Since they also carried coin bags with them and valuables, they would often be targeted by thugs and robbers. That’s why they would carry these spears to protect themselves,’ says an attendant at the cafe.
People who go to work will be able to drink tea and coffee at this cafe. The India Post website states that the country has the world’s largest postal network with 154,965 Post Offices (as of 31.03.2017), out of which 139,067 are in rural areas. On average, a post office serves an area of 21.56 sq. Km and a population of 7753 people. In spite of this, even India Post’s annual report indicates that the mail volume has decreased in recent years.
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