Leaving his stamp on letters

Sandeep Sinha

Dakiya Dak Laya, khushi ka paigham kahin, kahin dardnak laya…. Many of us will remember this old song from the film Palkon Ki Chhaon Mein in which the then superstar Rajesh Khanna had essayed the role of a postman. Once ubiquitous and regarded as a part of the family, the postman is less visible now, the sheen of his khaki dimmed by the proliferation of courier companies and their technologically-savvy delivery boys who need you to click on the link sent on your mobile phone to confirm the delivery of the packet.

It was on a Sunday morning that I ran into my neighbourhood postman, Sardha Ram. Surprised to see him working on a Sunday, not generally expected from employees of a government department, I stood in his way to check the reason. “Main kaam baki nahin rakhna chahta,” said Sardha Ram. He had some letters left for delivery and was going around distributing them. The pedals of his cycle had broken, preventing him from distributing his dak. He had got them replaced now. And does he get anything from the post office for it? A cycle allowance of Rs 180 per month is what Sardha Ram gets from his department and expenses incurred above this limit have to be borne by him. The cycle is his.

Sardha Ram has been a postman for 25 years, “pakki naukri”, as he puts it. Earlier, he was an extra department delivery agent (EDDA) in a village. He has been assigned to his present area, Sector 30 and Sector 29-A in Chandigarh, for 13 years while he covered the New Secretariat area for 12 years.

In the typical lingo of a postman, Sardha Ram informs of his origins. He is from village Makkowal— PO Behrampur Bet— in Ropar district of Punjab. He did his higher secondary from Chamkaur Sahib and then joined this service. His working hours extend from 9.30 am to 8 pm. He first has to go to the GPO in Sector 17 to collect the dak before setting out to distribute them. The volume of the work can be gauged from the fact that there are six postmen assigned to just Sector 30 while there are 65 postmen in Chandigarh just to distribute the speedpost. Still, Sardha Ram utilises time on a Sunday to distribute the dak left over.

About his work, Sardha Ram says the arrival of courier companies has indeed affected work but he points out the difference, “Private dak ghat gaye, sarkari dak badh gaye.” While companies and individuals now prefer the postal service for the delivery of their letters and messages less, the correspondence by various government departments has actually gone up. This has been because of the provision of services like home delivery of bank cheque books, ATM cards, driving licence, registration certificate, water and electricity bills, enough to keep the postmen busy the whole day.

On his emoluments, the postman says he gets Rs 42,000 as salary, minus the house rent, and is happy with the way things are, and from where it all began, he has indeed come some distance, if not a long way. He still has three years of service left, and his two sons are settled and married.

For his services to the community, the RBI Colony in Sector 30 had felicitated him last year at an Independence Day function, and indeed there would be many more who feel connected to him for his quiet, unassuming, but reliable service.

The man in khaki and turban with his flowing white beard, pedalling away on his bicycle, his dak tucked away in basket, is an intrinsic part of not just his assigned area of work, but of a bigger landscape that marked the rise and glory of our postal services. Three years down the line, Sardha Ram will pedal into the sunset, but his ilk will always remain a part of India’s postal lore.