Great Post Schin,
I have come across just 3 Indians (living in India
)on this forum, but will give my 2 Rupees worth.
The one thing we are quite proud of, is the Indian postal, at least within India. They deliver to the smallest possible village way out in the unknown, as long as the address is correct.
The only issue as such, is lack of proper street names and house numbers. Street names keep changing depending on the latest political party in power and whom they want to honour. All the beautiful old names are now converted to quite horrible names.
So just copy the address EXACTLY as mentioned by an Indian, as it will often have references to Landmarks in it. Eg. House 45, Next to Aditya Hospital, Opp. P&G Jewellers
To be safe, we often write our telephone numbers also on it, so that the courier guys can call to find out where the house is.
But the format is primarily
Name
House details (including landmarks)
Street name
Area
City - Pincode (6 digit)
State
Country
As long as the Pincode is correct, the State can be omitted.
The most crucial thing is the Pincode, and even if the House cannot be traced the letter lies in the local Post Office if the Pincode is correct and one can collect it from there.
Rates are ridiculously cheap for Indian mail. Domestic letters up to 20 gms are about $0.08 and $0.08 for each 20gms extra
International letters are about $0.47 up to 500gms
and you have to pay an additional $0.90 if you want an Acknowledgement of delivery. No tracking facility on this though. (I guess that would be asking for too much)
The one sad part, at least as far as this forum goes, is that the address cannot be in calligraphy. Most postmen don't bother taking the time to try to read the address. There is just way too many letters flooding a post office. If they are not able to immediately and easily read it, the letter goes in a bin
Can decorate the envelope as needed, but the address needs to be plain. It's not worth taking the chance of loosing a letter from you guys, just for that.
-Prasad