A neglected post office, falling apart and uninteresting might be located not very far from your house. With the advent of the Internet, email, Facebook and whatnot, posting might be a deadbeat activity.
But there is one fact that might make post offices tenfold cooler and awesome. There was one Indian post office in the southern continent of Antarctica.
This post office became operational on February 24, 1984 and was located in the scientific base of Dakshin Gangotri. It was established during the third Indian expedition to Antarctica.
Dakshin Gangotri was decommissioned in 1990 after it got half buried in ice. It is now marked as a historical site.
The post office at Dakshin Gangotri was part of multiple support systems, which also includes an ice-melting plant, laboratories, storage, accommodation, recreation facilities, a clinic and a bank counter.
On January 26, 1988, the Dakshin Gangotri PO was established under the Department of Post at Goa. Scientist G. Sudhakar Rao, who went to Antarctica as member of the Seventh Indian Scientific Expedition in 1987, was appointed as the first Honorary Postmaster.
In its first year of establishment, 10,000 letters were posted and cancelled in this post office.
Now, isn’t that quite interesting?