In the process of relocating back to India, I came back to my apartment in Santa Clara for a few weeks to close out everything here.
I have been away for over 6 months now … and had put my mail on hold from India by going to the USPS web site. Mail hold works only for a month at a time … so every month I went back dilgently to extend my mail-hold and leave instructions in the “comments box” to put it all together and to hold it in post office while I was away.
All along I kept having nightmares about they not reading my instructions, or ignoring my mail-hold or even worse … taking over my life as the mail included my bank statements, bills and my car title (ownership documents).
I came back last week to Santa Clara … walked into the post office … showed my ID and to my delight got my mail in a box … including the car title.
It was a miracle for me coming from India … where I have been trained to chain all my bags while on a train to pillars under the seat and take turns all night keeping an eye on those bags.
To keep my mail on hold … it takes a whole country’s legal and postal system behind it. (Sounds like it takes a village to raise a child). The post office provides this service online making it not only convenient but reliable. The postmen (and women) don’t dare touch my mail because they are back ground checked and mail fraud is a very serious offence. Even if some one walked away with my statements etc. they need to be a professional identity thief to be able to abuse it. My license is a reliable identification document, hence only I could walk up to pick up my mail.
Behind a simple internet form that I used to put my mail on hold … there was a whole country standing behind it.
Hat’s off to public systems in the US …
Sridhar Turaga's blog 