‘Postman’ Sharan signs off from Parl

Prime ministers changed as did ministers and there were new MP faces every five years but Ram Sharan ‘Postman’, assigned the Parliament beat, remained a constant, walking up and down the corridors of power for the last 21 years. Right till he delivered his last ‘daak’.

The common man who found himself among India’s most powerful, Ram Sharan retires on Tuesday, content, he says, to have served ‘all with equal importance and without a single complaint’. “You don’t get to deliver mail inside the House for 21 years if you make mistakes and bring back complaints,” Ram Sharan said, a day ahead of his final adieu from the postal service on Tuesday and three days after he dropped his last ‘daak’ in Parliament on Friday

Had Monday not been Janmashtami, that would have been his last working day ‘in Parliament’. After long hours of walking from one office to another to deliver mail inside the sprawling Parllament House complex, Ram Sharan said he would take a few moments to quietly sip tea outside the Red Cross building on Sansad Marg and reflect on the day that had been.

As he hangs up his boots and readies for his farewell, Ram Sharan said there are no regrets. It has been a lifetime of work well done. The father of seven, all married and settled in their respective lives, now plans to become member of union of retired postmen. He believes it is important to keep meeting people and know new things ‘else your mind stops working’.