The 'Delivery' Man

As a Public Relations professional, my first Press Conference was for a multinational courier delivery services company at a five star hotel in South Bombay. Needless to say, I was nervous. The nervousness was on two counts…it was my first Press Conference; and the only thing I knew about five star hotels was that they were unapologetically expensive. I was supposed to carry two cartons containing the Press Kits to the venue. I took a kaali-peeli from our office (our office boy loaded the two cartons into the dikki) and headed to the hotel. When I reached the hotel, I was too scared to ask for help from the hotel staff, lest they charge me heavily for it (I was carrying cash, but not the ‘five star’ kind of cash). I didn’t ask…and so none of the staff came forward to help. So I trudged my way through the lobby towards the elevator, pulling the two cartons.

A tall gentleman (a formally dressed foreigner) sitting in the lobby saw my plight with the two branded cartons. His personality was such that anyone would notice him in a crowd or if he walked into a room. He came up to me and offered to hold one carton. I thanked him and said that I’ll manage. He insisted and picked up one of the cartons. In my mind, I was happy about getting help, but then I thought ‘not this guy…he is too sophisticated’. Still I didn’t want to let go the help. As we walked (each of us holding one carton), I thanked him profusely, to which he said, “You don’t need to thank me…it’s my job…this is what I do for a living…delivering things from one place to another.” I didn’t quite understand what he meant…I was just too happy to get some help. We reached the Press Conference venue. And that’s when I realised what he meant…as the Country Head of the multinational courier delivery services company, he was the key spokesperson at the Press Conference. My thankfulness turned into an apology…but he kept the humour alive with a laugh. It’s an incident which I’ll cherish forever…for the humour and the humanity which the gentleman displayed.