Rahul Kumar Singh: ‘I hope to buy a motorcycle so I can do more deliveries in a day’

I migrated to Delhi from Balia in Uttar Pradesh after completing my graduation in science. This was just before the pandemic had started in 2020. My first job was at Maruti Suzuki in Gurugram as a store keeper-in-charge. Later, I joined Amazon in the same capacity. But I lost both those jobs during the first and second wave of the pandemic when the country was completely locked down.

Since then, I have been working as a delivery executive for Zomato. I do not have enough money to buy a bike, so I bought a cycle for Rs 1,000 and started delivering on that. I manage to work for only seven to eight hours every day because riding a cycle for that long daily leaves me absolutely exhausted. Sometimes, the deliveries are for seven to eight kilometres, which is quite a lot for someone on a cycle. Despite that, I earn around Rs 250-300 a day. I often think of working just six days in a week, but I also have to send some money home, so I have not been able to take that break.

What I want to leave behind

I hope things do not get as bad as they did in the last two years. If they do, it will impact the economy as a whole and will also have a deep impact on my life. I have already lost two jobs due to the pandemic, it cannot happen again. There are very few jobs out there, and I don’t wish for a situation where I am left without one again

What I am looking forward to in 2023

My only hope is that I manage to get a better job, and that some of my relatives, who have been struggling, get jobs. I also hope that if I continue to work for Zomato, I am able to purchase a motorcycle so I can do more deliveries in a day and don’t have to put in so much effort in cycling every day

— As told to Soumyarendra Barik