No matter what town or village you go to in India, however remote it may be; there’s bound to be a Post Office nearby. Every old post office has some history attached to it, trivial or important. There are intriguing and interesting stories about their origins, i.e., why the post offices were set up in these places. Most were set up for the business they would generate, or as intermediate pit stops for long postal routes or for administrative and military purposes. However one small post office in rural Odisha had been set up only for a Grammarian, a school teacher who had written a set of grammar books.
The small post office at Bari Cuttack had been first opened sometime in the early 1900’s. It lay on the important Jajpur-Kendrapada route, and had its own building and a small attached house for the postmaster.
Kedar Chandra Mohanty had studied at the Urdu School in Bari and then migrated to Baripada where he got employed by the Maharaja of Mayurbhanj. He was in the Maharaja’s service when a son was born to him. Krupa Sindhu, the son, was put up at the school in Baripada and completed his Matriculation in 1947. Post- Independence, with the merger of the princely States, his father lost his job and moved back to the village.
Young Krupa Sindhu could not study further; there were no colleges in the vicinity and his father could not afford to send him to the Ravenshaw College at Cuttack.He got a job as an English teacher at the village school and he took up the effort with all devotion and sincerity. Even though it was a low paid job, he was held in great esteem by the villagers. He was a courteous and polite man, the villagers provided him with most of his needs.
In those olden days, school masters were very harsh and strict towards their students. They used the rod freely and frequently, believing in the maxim, 'Spare the rod and spoil the child.' The students were terribly afraid of the teachers as most of them struck terror in their hearts. But the gentle and patient Krupa Sir was loved by his students; all that he wanted from them was that they would learn English.
He taught English, but for his students it seemed like a nightmare. Grammar was tough, even the students who enjoyed reading and writing had a difficult time getting all the rules right.
A bunch of words sounded the same but were spelled differently, or a bunch of words that were spelled the same but had different meanings.
Most of his students failed in the exams, and once when the Inspector of Schools paid a visit, the young teacher had to cut a sorry figure as his students could not answer even the basic questions.
It was then that Krupa Sindhu decided to write a set of books that would help his wards. He went to Cuttack to meet publishers, but none of them showed any interest in the diminutive schoolmaster and his books.
Printing of books was not an easy affair in those times, the presses at Cuttack wanted cash up front; the poorly paid Krupa Sindhu did not have the money. He sold five acres of his agricultural land to print his first set of books.
His first book, “The Common Knowledge in English” was published in 1960. It was written in a simple and lucid style. Students and teachers from all over the State just could not have enough of his books. He priced them at Rs 2 each, which was affordable even to the poor students.Word of his books spread, and many students came to him for them. Someone in the village suggested that he should advertise in the newspapers, a suggestion that he took up.
In 1964, the first advertisement for his books appeared in the daily Samaj, he offered to sell the books by V.P.P. Such was the deluge of response that the Postmaster had to write to the authorities for additional staff to deliver sacksful of letters that arrived.
Just packing the small parcels and posting them took up most of the school masters time. The advertisement for his Grammar books would appear once every month.
More than 2500 VPP book packets were sent all over the State from the small post office every month, and the return money orders of these packets were an additional burden.Very soon, the old Branch Office at Bari Kalamatia was revived, and two assistants posted there.
The new Post Office was set up in a small hut right next to the Krupa Sindhu’s house. The Grammarian would post all his parcels there; sometimes the load was such that it has to be carried to the main post office in a bullock cart.
The Kalamatia Post Office was kept busy for the next thirty years, the Grammar books kept them going. In 1995, the last advertisement appeared in the “Samaj”.
There had been major reforms in the education system, grammar was no longer taught as it had been and after the Government started to print text books, Krupa Sir’s books were no more wanted.