Milk Man

By Dr. Ruchi Singh

My dear milkman, how awfully you have changed your presence. You used to be the most important person in the family, who everyone used to look up to early in the morning. The morning tea, Baby’s milk, grandma and grandpa’s Lord Shiva’s offering everything was tied to your existence. You were an integral part of our lives; you were the first visitor to the household who would be the first one to knock on the door every morning. We didn’t need an alarm to get up in the morning your early morning knock at the door accompanied by your regular intro “Doodhwala” was our wake-up call. Your presence those initial five minutes early in the morning used to set the tone of the day with your humble greetings and smile. Life would start with such positivity and routine. I miss your cycle on which you would carry the cans loaded with milk. I miss your white attire with a white turban on your head. I miss the physical alarm that you were. I miss how devastatingly changed you are now. You have modernised now, you come in a fancy van, your attire has changed to jeans and a TSHIRT that carries a picture of a skull decorated with guns and flowers now. You have stopped tapping at the door too as you just drop packets of milk at the doorsteps now. You only visit us once a month to collect your milk payment now. OH! How detached and unbothered you are now; you refuse to greet or speak a word now as you are busy listening to music on your bulky headphones now. We lost a family member it seems no alarms, no greetings no smiles now life has turned so detached and mechanical now. I wish a day would come when you would knock at our door early in the morning to share pleasantries and small talk with the whole family as you used to do early, but that would require all of us to travel back in time which seems an impossible task by a mere mortal as me. I wish you all the best dear milkman as you have moved ahead in your life you have learnt to adapt and transform you see. The tea in my most expensive chinaware seems tasteless and consoling as the main ingredient, the purity of the milk is missing. They say that change is constant, and one should accept it as soon as possible otherwise the world will tag you living under a rock. I have too transformed now I do night shifts so that I don’t have to miss even your memories now, as I too have become detached and mechanical now.

By Dr. Ruchi Singh