New Delhi: When social entrepreneur Kiran Verma booked a Porter delivery, he didn’t realise he would be touched by the story of the delivery person.
In a LinkedIn post, Verma recounted his meeting with a 56-year-old man who once had a stable job but was forced to take up gig work after a mass layoff.
Verma made a Porter booking for Rs 40 to get a letter delivered within Noida, and an old man showed up. Since he was getting ready, Verma asked the person to come to the door to pick up the parcel. “He came up with little struggle and I said sorry for not coming down, offered water but he refused,” Verma wrote.
The old man, Manoj, took the envelope before saying, “Aaj kaam hi nahi tha, wait kar raha tha kaam ke liye (I had no work today. I was waiting for some work)”.
What caught Verma’s attention was how tidily dressed and well-spoken the man was, despite doing gig work.
“He left and I felt bad for him, I was filled with guilt as I let the old man struggle for my laziness,” he wrote.
It was when Verma called Manoj back to “sit to relax” that he narrated his moving story.
Manoj told Verma that he used to work in the admin department of Tata AIA Life Insurance, and was shown the door during a mass layoff in 2023, after giving 14 years to the company.
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‘Living the same life’
While Manoj didn’t tell the reason why he was laid off, he said something that stayed with Verma, and those online who came across the post: “Beta jab sabzi banate hai toh curry leaf sabse pehle daalte hai, par jab sabzi khate hai toh sabse pehle curry nikalte hai (Curry leaves are the first thing we put when making a dish, and it is also the first thing we remove when we begin to eat the dish)”.
Verma said Manoj couldn’t get a stable job again due to his age and health.
“His words were truly worth remembering as we all are living exactly the same life,” he wrote.
The post resonated with many on the internet, and also drew a response from Porter, which thanked Verma for “sharing this heartfelt post”.
Some highlighted why it’s important to be more gentle and kind to others, since we never know what the other person went through.
“Life is hard, people have battles we cannot see and sometimes we dont even understand. Kindness, compassion, a conversation is all a person needs to make it through the day, sometimes through a day that sucks so bad, they want to end it all. People need to stop being entitled and become more gentle, more forgiving, more empathetic,” a LinkedIn user wrote.
Another said that the post made him pause. “Life has a way of humbling all of us. May we never measure people by where they are today. Instead, may we choose compassion over assumptions, acceptance over judgment, and gratitude for the blessings we often overlook”.