I studied in the government public school in local marathi medium. Those days schooling was indeed a joyous journey. More of a memories and less of a study. Still I vaguely remember that in some primary class I had a lesson on a “Postman”. Pretty interesting throwing light on any postman’s busy day. Entire village was dependent on this postman for money transfer, reading letters and every other matter which required literacy. Indeed the postman was part of their daily life. But there is a reason I say, I vaguely remember. Remember the classic “Sholay”? Who doesn’t 🙂 . The 1975 movie full of legendary characters and many of us have these characters carved in our minds. Samba, Gabbar, Jay, Viru, Thakur, Basanti…Even many of us know “Dhanno”, Basanti’s female horse coupled with the dialogue ” Chal Dhanno, tere Basanti ke izzat ka sawal hai”. Here is the googly for you. Does anyone remember the postman in the Sholay film, forget about his name? If you do, my sincere kudos to you :).
In nearly two decades of my corporate life I do not remember how many postmans and now a days delivery boys came to me and did their job of delivering goods and parcel. It is tough time for me to remember or recall anyone. I am sure, so it is for you. Afterall who wants to apply “empathy” here beyond the walls of conference room :). But the moments came and I got a chance to step into the foot of a delivery boy. A small business kickstarted by my family was taking some shape and entering into the ecommerce. Naturally, packing the orders and keeping the parcels ready for the delivery became the part and parcel of the routine. Albeit small, the business is having tie up with the established logistic partners like Amazon ATS, Delhivery to name a few. Besides we got an option of self delivery to quickly serve the local and nearby customers.
Having spent so many years in the industry, it was way different for me to pickup the parcel, reach the destination, call the client, scan the parcel and then deliver. But the positive thought gave enough boost to me that my business is offering the quickest possible delivery to the customer. Moreover I convinced myself that this will save some bucks which is an essential part of running any ecommerce business. I picked up the first parcel from the shop. On the way to destination I was going through N number of thoughts, when should I call the customer? At the gate or before that? Should I check if the customer is available? Will security guard allow me? I do not have ID card, what to do? Soon the thoughts vented down since the delivery location was in close by row house society. I called up the customer but did not get a response. Security guard noted down all my details and allowed me to enter the society. He was kind enough to give the direction, too. I approached the row house and fumbled upon to see any doorbell. The row house compound wall was tall enough to hide the row house. Gate was properly locked from inside. As I tried to get some help to reach to the owner, a lady appeared in the door. She yelled well within from security gate, “Kya hai??” Her voice was sharp and loud enough that I am sure, nearly 3-4 surrounding houses might have realized by now that some stranger is lingering outside. I politely replied, ” Madam, aapka Amazon parcel aaya hai”. Without loosing a moment the lady quickly vented out, “Tou rakh do naa, waha kursi pe”. A great shocker for me to see where is the chair being referred by this lady. Somehow, I could notice murky chair at one corner of the gate hidden little inside. I said, “Madam, gate band hai, kursi pe kaise rakh du?” Next shocker, “Gate ke upar se daal do par tutana nahi chahiye”. Gate was more tha 7 feet high and the lady was expecting me to throw the parcel exactly on the chair and that too without causing any breakage. I simply threw it the way I can and left the place. Couple of months ago, a friend of mine from the same society was proudly narrating how their society was at the forefront in “thaali bajao” to boost the morals of the corona warriors. Looks like, the society was dramebaaz or 100s and 1000s of delivery boys who delivered the essentials during the pandemic do not fit in the very definition of corona warriors.
In few days, I had another interesting incident. A delivery was scheduled in a society with multiple skyscrapers. By now, I was fully accustomed to the routine of picking up the parcels, talking to security and doing the formalities to get the access. I reached the place, talked to the security and took the lift to enter the desired floor. The moment, I came out of the lift, my eyes glued on the walls to check the layout and which is the door for Flat no 704. Oh, few doors did carry the flat number, few didn’t. Search abhiyaan continued to narrow down to 704. In vain, I couldn’t locate. With the no options left, I called up the client to let him know my confusion. “Sir, main delivery dene aaya hun. Aap ka flat door pata nahi chal raha hai. Kya please aap delivery collect kar sakte ho bahar aakar”, me. The response came, ” Kya hai yaar yeh, aap delivery dene aate ho aur simple saa address dhundane nahi aata”. I firmly replied, “Sir, nahi mil raha isi liye call kiya”. The other person was so irritated with the call. May be he was busy and the call from a delivery boy was rather annoying to him. But then how did he expect someone to coordinate with him. Especially, when his number was mentioned as the contact person. Movements like “Black life matters” gathered lots of sympathizers in our India. When are we going to realize, “Individual respect matters”, “Performing jobs and its duties matters”, “Being polite matters”, “mutual respect for the people matters”? Or this is meant only for the conference rooms and computer screens. Dreaming a five trillion economy is perfectly fine and must. When are we going to dream a society with harmony and respect for every strata of the life.
Next time you get to see a delivery boy, make a point to say a cool thanks !!!!
