Thalayar, a sleepy plantation village in Munnar, has carefully preserved a piece of its colonial past, housed in a typical tin-sheeted estate building of the British era. White letters on blue background scream out, ‘Post Office.’
History aficionados are welcome to go through the building’s origin, 117 years ago. Though the record is difficult to read, since the lower portion is damaged, the date of its setting up is legible. The post office was set up on October 21, 1898 and is one of the oldest post offices still in use in the country.
Munnar, replete with tea estates, had a wide communication network started by the British. The Thalayar post office was the third one in the region, the other two, at Munnar town and Devikulam, were launched in 1888 and 1892 respectively. The post office still works in a rented building of the estate company. India Post has employed three persons here, including a postmaster. The two post offices at Mattupetty and Marayur were later carved out of the area under the Thalayar post office, said a senior official here.
The original documents pertaining to the post office were intact just because of the determination of the British to keep, and protect, records of major happenings, he said.
There were also records of some of the transactions during the British era and these were later moved to a museum at Mysuru. “A few days ago, two postal employees from Germany visited the post office. British tourists too drop in to have a look,” he said. It is believed that the place got the name ‘Thalayar’ (meaning head of the river) during the British period as it is the originating place of the Pambar, one of the three east-flowing rivers of Kerala.
The post office was set up on October 21, 1898 and was part of the communication network started by the British in the Munnar region.
