Daakiya Daak Laaya

See the Postman delivering letters to us, whatever the weather. Be it rain or shine, windy, icy & snowy, cold or warm, be it good or bad weather, he has to always deliver his duty.

The competition is such, that if he doesn't do it, someone else will, and he'll lose out on his job that feeds his family.

So besides the weather conditions, with the limitations on his health, his everyday little aches and pains, he has to walk, cycle, ride or drive, the transport may be different, the job remains the same, across all countries.

The job may seem simple with a frugal income, but I have great reverence for postmen as they keep the world's families 'n' friends in touch with each other, and also delivering important news to business establishments and corporates thru their mail-boxes.

I remember that more than a decade ago, in our Sadiq Nagar locality in India, there was this simple, soft-spoken, Postman uncle who used to always deliver letters with a 'smiling' face.

Once it was raining so bad with cold winds and I saw him as usual, delivering his duty, on his bicycle. He was drenched wet.

Had I not called him, he would have carried on, braving the stormy weather, posting letters in everyone's garages. I felt so touched.

I beckoned him to sit on the Verandah and instead of 'enduring' the rain, he got the chance to enjoy seeing the rain in our garden, sipping some hot tea and snacks I had made for him.

Then, as the rain gradually receded and the heavy downpour turned into a light drizzle, he took leave, thanking me for my hospitality.

Not knowing how much gratitude I felt for him, for his diurnal duty of delivering letters to us regularly, month after month, year after year.

Today, he must have grown a lot more old, may be retired too. How I wish, I could see him again and say a whole-hearted Thank You.

Even here in UK, when I see the postmen going about their jobs in cycles and vans, I look at them with awe and reverence.

Too often we take them for granted, esp. the type of routine tasks they do, seems quite trivial and mundane.

But come to think of it, thru their everyday mail deliveries, they make the whole world seem so close and connected.

Like Rajesh Khanna's Daakiya Daak Laaya enacted so well by him, and sung so beautifully by the one and only Kishore Kumar.

So the days you abhor going to the office, think of the Postman's diurnal duty.

I am not saying it might encourage you so much that you land up at work that very same day, but may be, it could make you feel a wee bit better for work the following day.

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Letter to an Acquaintance who didn't feel like going to work.

Written by : Aparna Chatterjee