Pathanamthitta: Interestingly, only two 'persons' have an independent post office exclusively for them. The first is the President and the other is Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala in Kerala. The post office for Lord Ayyappa is active only for three months in a year when the festival season is peak--689713 is the pin code for Lord Ayyappa at the post office at Sannidhanam in Sabarimala--this post office also has many more specialities. The postal seal here has images of the 18 holy steps that lead to the sanctum sanctorum and also the image of the Lord Ayyappa idol. Nowhere in the country, the postal department uses a different postal seal for their mail.
Many devotees stand in a queue at the post office to send a letter to their houses and dear ones with the impression of this unique postal seal. This postal seal will be kept safely in the office of the Pathanamthitta postal superintendent office once the season gets over and will be used only during the next festive season.
Lord Ayyappa also gets several letters every day from this post office some declaring their love for the celibate Ayyappa, and also with prayers for getting their wishes fulfilled. Apart from letters, Lord Ayyappa also gets wedding invitations, housewarming invitations, and money orders from different parts of the world. Devaswom officials say that the number of letters received at this post office for Lord Ayyappa is so enormous that they could not be read in a year's time. These letters and money orders are handed over to the Sabarimala executive officer by the postal department.
This post office was established in 1963 and the special postal seal was introduced in 1974. This post office also offers a recharge facility for various mobile service providers, a facility to send money orders, an India Post payment facility and parcel services. One postmaster and two multi-tasking staff are taking care of the operations of this post office.
