Sending a Thank You Note

Jay and I, along with about 16 other expats, were invited to the home of Karen and Homi Mehta for a turkey dinner the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I decided to send them a thank you note for their hospitality.

I had purchased some hand made note cards at a charity bazaar so I already had the paper. I penned my message then put the card into the envelope and addressed it. Hmmm, no glue on the envelope. We had a tube of Quickfix, the glue that “joins everything except broken hearts!” so I applied some to the flap and sealed the envelope.

There is a small post office not far from our apt. so I decided to take the note there to send it. I needed (I thought) only two things at the post office: the PIN code (like our ZIP code) and a stamp. There’s no such thing as getting online or looking in a book to find the PIN code, so I asked the woman behind the counter. She deferred to a burly, brusque man who just called it out to me when told the destination. I wrote the number on the envelope. She asked who the mail was to. I pointed to the middle of the envelope at the name and address. In big black letters above the address she wrote TO. Okay… I purchased a stamp for five rupees (about 11 cents). No adhesive on the stamp. Now what? The woman behind the counter pointed and told me to go outside. I had failed to notice on my way in there was a small, shallow clay pot of mucilage sitting on a blue stool just outside the door. The applicator was a three inch twig.

I smeared the stamp with goo, I mean glue, affixed it to the note then looked for a place to deposit it. I saw a red metal box attached to a pole near the sidewalk that read “LETTERS.” In it went. I wonder if it will ever reach its destination.