I am an early riser not by choice but by compulsion. I have to stick to this loathsome habit especially during winter as I run an English coaching centre at my home. Students start turning up just before six in the morning. Therefore, I need to leave the bed nearly an hour before the arrival of the students. After accomplishing my morning chores, I enter the coaching room at 6 a.m. on the dot.
The secret behind my success in becoming an early riser is our newspaper delivery man. Unwittingly, I am indebted to him absolutely. Since our shift from our rented house to our own house more than three decades ago, he has been our newspaper delivery man. Never does he fail to deliver two dailies before dawn except on wet days as he has to pack and unpack the newspapers with plastic papers after every home.
He throws the bundled newspapers tied in a small piece of jute string while crossing the road by our house riding on his old bicycle. A light thud of the bundle falling on the concrete floor of the porch alerts me that it is time to wake up from bed. What surprises me most is that he has never failed to do his duty. A newspaper hawker’s duty cannot be done by others in his absence. It is quite impossible for another person to identify the houses of the customers.
I think that the profession of newspaper delivery man is one of the toughest tasks. A newspaper delivery man typically enjoys limited days off rather than a standard five-day or six-day work week. Holidays are usually strictly restricted to not more than three to five national red letter days and a few major regional festivals when newspapers are not printed in the press.
I generally get a chance to meet him once a month during the payment of the bill. Besides, whenever I go to the railway station to catch the train that departs the platform at 4.55 a.m., our newspaper delivery man along with his other counterparts is found sorting, bundling and binding the newspapers on the elongated carrier and the handle of his bicycle.
One day I asked him what time he had to leave for the station which is about 5 km from his home. With a gloomy smile, he replies that he rides on his bicycle at 3 a.m. positively. What surprises me most is that illness has never confined him to bed for more than three decades. I came to know from him that whatever urgency it may be, no newspaper hawker can travel a long distance. They can neither attend social ceremonies such as wedding parties nor stand by physically to the near and dear ones even on the days of tragedies, including the demise of a close relative.
They always have to keep in mind the distance whether it allows them to return to their home on the same day and join the next day’s work to deliver the newspapers door to door. However, after 11 am he is free to do something else bound by the next day’s duty. In reply to my inquisitiveness about the problem created by the street dogs that usually wake up and chase people terribly when darkness prevails, he explained that the dogs are sensitive to the movement of the regular travellers on the roads.
When our newspaper delivery man first joined this profession, he was a stout young man. He is now a senior citizen. But he is physically fit enough to continue his relentless service. One day I wanted to know his experience about his job. He replied with a beaming smile that he never feels bored of his job. He considers a newspaper delivery man to be the first person to connect people with the globe. Last but not the least he thinks that he has no age of retirement. His optimistic attitude towards his profession really overwhelmed me. In the first week of every month I eagerly wait for our newspaper carrier to visit our house for collection.
Published - July 26, 2026 03:49 am IST