Journey to Mor Pankh

To you, who came a long way,

Welcome to the Storm Post Office. This letter is posted from India, 1966, setting out from the new city of Chandigarh toward Mor Pankh. The envelope is terracotta cotton, lettered by a sign-painter whose strokes end in long curves; a border of indigo and turquoise geometry, inspired by woven cloth, holds the edge, beside a line drawing of concrete sunshades. Under an ochre engraving of a star-measuring instrument lies a cream astronomy docket.

A poet wrote of travellers: “The traveller has to knock at every alien door to come to his own, and one has to wander through all the outer worlds to reach the innermost shrine at the end.” — Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali (1912)

How far you have come, we cannot know. But behind every strange door there may be a lamp, a cup of tea and an empty desk waiting for you. When you are tired, write a letter; it does not need to travel as fast as you do.

Safe roads, and tea along the way

Storm Post Office

1966 · India