You need to send a parcel home from India. Yak wool socks. Yak wool hat. Sheep wool jacket and gloves. You (almost) left the mountains and you won't be cold anymore. First you go to the post officeto ask whether you may bring it packed or not. They might want to inspect what exactly you are sending. If they do not care – my case in Shimla – you start looking for a box. They do not sell them at post office, neither do they at the stationer's. But some of the shopkeeper will give a used one, just a little bit torn. You pack your stuff and take it to tailor. He will wrap it in white cotton cloth, stitch it, and have it sealed in wax. Complete with English sounding name on the seal's imprints. Then you go to the post office, fill the form F.P.-19 C2/CP3 (have you seen Brazil [IMDB]?) and make your way to the counter. People queque from both sides and women and senior citizens and everybody cheeky enough goes straight to the front. You explain to the clerk that Czech Republic really is a country and yes, they have a mail service there. He then sticks one or two or three barcodes on your parcel, you get receipt and that's it.
Peace: I send it via airmail. They promised me it will take less than a week. By seamail it would be a month. But the guidebook threatens that it can take two years. So I wonder. And hope for the best.
