MEPPADI: No one writes the code 673577 in their postal address anymore. The number once linked to a green, bustling Mundakkai now belongs to a graveyard of memories. Stone pillars bear the names of those who lived there — most of whom lie buried beneath the land the Chooralmala-Mundakkai landslides swallowed a year ago. The post office is gone, the homes are gone, and the ward itself has faded into a silent stretch of abandoned land.
For P T Velayudhan, the postman who once knew every home in Mundakkai, the change is heartbreaking. Now stationed at a temporary post office in Meppadi, he sorts through the sparse mail that trickles in — mostly ATM cards and bank notices. Survivors or their families collect them directly, replacing the familiar door-to-door rounds that once defined his days.
A native of Chooralmala School Road, Velayudhan once walked Mundakkai’s winding lanes with ease, each address carrying a face and a story. Today, those addresses exist only in memory — like the village itself, erased from the map yet etched in grief. “Earlier, I used to deliver many personal letters. Now there are none,” Velayudhan tells TNIE. “These days, only speed posts from banks carrying ATM or credit cards arrive. I contact the addressees, and since most of them now live in Meppadi, they collect it from our office. If they are in Kalpetta, I go there whenever I can.”
Velayudhan himself is a survivor. His home was completely destroyed in the landslide, forcing him, like many others, to move into a rented house in Aripatta, near Meppadi. “I lost everything that night. I’m originally from Pattambi in Palakkad district and was posted here when I was just 29. I built my entire life in Chooralmala. For 33 years, I delivered letters to Mundakkai residents... everyone there was either a friend or a relative.
Thirteen years ago, I built a house in Chooralmala with my life savings. That too was destroyed in the landslide,” he recalls. Two months after the disaster, Velayudhan visited Mundakkai with officials from the postal department. “There was no trace of the post office. Most houses were washed away. A few still stood, abandoned.
Our postmaster, Abdul Majeed, lived near the post office. He had been battling cancer and had moved with his family to Kalpetta for treatment before the landslide... that’s how they survived. But he passed away soon after due to his illness. That was another big blow for me,” he said.
Velayudhan’s wife, Shalini T G, was working at the Vellarmala post office on a retirement vacancy at the time of the disaster. She too was a familiar face in the community, now scattered far from the place they once called home.