Mail services in India
Mail services in India are quite reliable. Apart from Government opertaed General Post Offices (GPO’s) known as “Daak Ghar” in India, there are many courior option available in India. FedEx, UPS, XPS, DHL and other major players operate from many cities. Many other local courior services operate from all other smaller cities. Generally, a mail can take anything from three days to four weeks to get to or from India, depending largely on where you are; Stamps are not expensive. You can also buy stamps at big hotels. Having parcels sent out to you in India is not such a good idea - chances are they’ll 90 astray. If you do have a parcel sent, have it registered. Sending a parcel out of India can be quite a performance. First you have to get it cleared by customs at the post office (they often don’t bother, but check), then you take it to a tailor and agree a price to have it wrapped in cheap cotton cloth (which you / may have to go and buy yourself), stitched up and sealed with wax. In big city GPOs, people offering this service will be at hand. Next, take it to the post office, fill in and attach the relevant customs forms (it’s best to tick the box marked “gift” and give its value as less than Rs 1000 or “no commercial value", to avoid bureaucratic entanglements).
Parcels in Britain, North America and Australia and New Zealand, books and magazines can be sent more cheaply, unsealed or wrapped around the middle, as printed papers ("book post"). Alternatively, there are numerous courier services but it is safest to stick to known international companies such ! as DHL. Packages sent by air are expensive. Couriers are not as reliable as they should I be and there have been complaints of packages going astray. Remember that all pack-: ages from India are likely to be suspect at i home, and searched or X-rayed; don’t send : anything dodgy.