Cheruthuruthy: Letters have reached various parts of the world through it and it has tales spread over four decades to tell. It is the red post box in front of the Kalamandalam office.
Due to the shortage of space for kalaris on the Nila campus, land was purchased for the new Kalamandalam in Vallathol Nagar with the help of the government. After it shifted to this place, the Kalamandalam was filled with people as foreigners also started visiting it in large numbers.
To facilitate communication and exchange of information for them and other visitors, the postbox was placed here in the late 1970s.
Before the advent of email, letters written in different languages and addressed to various countries in almost every part of the world would fill the postbox. It, in fact, became the busiest postbox managed by the Cheruthuruthy sub-post office.
“Letter writing has decreased rapidly, but here some people still choose letters as a medium to communicate. After all, the beauty and satisfaction in expressing through letters cant outrun text messages these days," says Mallika Suresh, acting Postmaster of Cheruthuruthi, Thrissur.
The post office still maintains the letter box by painting it red when it gets rusty due to age. Although post boxes have faded in many parts of the world in the age of mobile phones, this old-fashioned letter box provides a unique sight on World Post Day.