THE PARCEL THAT NEVER REACHED

THE PARCEL THAT NEVER REACHED

 

            According to a recent news item in the newspapers that railways, air companies and other carriers always pay fantastic sums every year as compensation for parcels and goods that could not be delivered and got lost in transit.

 

            It remanded me of an amusing incident relating to a parcel that never reached. Imagine your feelings if you suddenly discover that the sweets you have consumed (without payment of course) were really the left-over from a marriage feast, sent by the bride's father to his sweeper, who was recently transferred to another town just before the wedding.

 

The sweepers of our locality visited the station everyday to inquire about the parcel which he expected from his former master. He even told the concerned authorities what he expected to get. But even before he had received he receipt and gone to collect the parcel, the staff had enjoyed the sweets. They were too shy to admit before the sweeper that they had eaten the delicacies, and too horrified to tell their children and spouses that the sweets they had brought home were in fact left-overs. 

 

            Losses of parcels de to pilferage or negligence are, however, not funny. Some contain machinery needed to put life into the crippled industrial plants, leading to untold misery to the laid-off labour. Other losses involve emotional upsets caused by the loss of cherished items, extremely valued by the senders, and those who hoped to receive them.