The delivery boy — a phone in one hand, an unstrapped helmet on the other and a heavy backpack full of goods — is the most visible face of a festival these days. It is a harried face, too, as he stands at a doorstep to hand over a gift to a delighted customer before he zips to the next address. It is the face of Pavan Kumar.The 27-year-old has been working as a delivery boy with Delhivery, an express logistics service, for two years. For him Diwali is the best time of the year. Kumar, who makes Rs 10,000-12,000 a month, manages to earn Rs 26,000 in the month of Diwali because of the hike in shipment.Kumar, who lives at Devli village in Delhi , has to take care of a family of five — his parents, wife and a three-year-old son — and the extra money comes in handy. But it comes at a price: punishing work hours. Usually, Kumar delivers 60-70 packages a day. That number goes up to 100 during the festival season.Shift changes from 8 am to 4 pm, to 7 am to 7 pm. “Since it is festival time, 8-10% customers are never at home. So we have to make six-seven attempts to deliver their parcels. Some customers insist on opening the package and checking what is in the box before we leave, even though that is not part of our mandate. That also takes up a lot of time and we end up upsetting another customer who’s waiting for his parcel that carries a Karva Chauth gift for his wife,” he says.The delivery boy doesn’t deal with parcels alone, he also deals with the recipient’s expectations and reactions. And condescension. When some people behave irrationally, for instance, use foul language and mistreat them, “bahut khunnas aata hai (it is really annoying),” says Kumar.Customers can be downright disrespectful, agrees Bengalurubased Sundar Raj, a 33-year-old who works with the food ordering platform Runnr. “They think delivery guys are jobless people. They don’t even bother with courtesies like ‘Thank you’ after receiving a parcel. There is no concern for a delivery boy who ensures that goods are delivered on time in spite of traffic jams and complicated routes,” says Raj.The High-Maintenance Customer Some customers can be pesky for no reason, says Nitin Perulkar, a 31-yearold rider with Mumbai-based online delivery service Scootsy. “They will ask why I had rung the bell even when I had called them 10 minutes ago and told them I was on the way. But we have been taught during our training not to engage in unnecessary chatter with customers. We just say sorry, if it helps, and move on.”Then there are customers who would insist that the delivery executive take back the parcel if they are not happy with it. Nagendra Singh Negi, a 36-year-old with Snapdeal, says: “During peak season, people order a lot and return a lot as well. They think anybody wearing a Snapdeal uniform is a solution to all their problems related to the brand. Delivery executives are not authorised to accept parcels. But when we try and explain this to our forever-in-a-hurry customers, they get mad at us, without realising that we have no say in the matter. Somebody else makes the rules.” When reasoning doesn’t help mollify the enraged customer, they just dial their area supervisor to save the day.Kabeer Karnani, senior manager (operations), Delhivery, deals with 10,000 customers daily. Resolving customers’ issues is an essential part of his job. He also has to mentor and manage about 100 field executives. “Most of them don’t belong to the city they are working in.Finding some addresses can become a problem for them. It’s my job to understand their situation and support them.” Swamy HA is new to this job. He has recently joined Runnr as a part-time delivery boy — he needs the extra money to pay for his college. The 28-year-old is doing BA from Government First Grade Degree College on Kanakapura Road in Bengaluru. He says customers are generally friendly during the festival season but will not brook any delay in delivery.“Some of them will not even help me out with the route to their house. Often, the delay in delivery is caused because of the merchant, but I get the flak for that as well.” Incidents like these bog Swamy down, but he knows he needs the money to finish his course. Last week, he got Rs 1,200 as bonus from 60 orders over three days. “That is not a small amount for me,” he says Sundar Raj, Swamy’s compatriot at Runnr, cannot afford to skip work around Diwali. It’s the only time he gets to make an additional Rs 12,000 on his otherwise fixed salary of Rs 15,000. “I come home at 1 am during the Diwali season. The family feels neglected but they know our financial situation and understand the money is needed to run the house,” he says.Not all customers are grouchy. The delivery guys say they meet more good people than bad. Snapdeal’s Negi says: “About five days ago, I called a customer to inform that I have arrived with the parcel. I gathered from the voice at the other end that it was an old lady. She stays on the eleventh floor of a building and the lift wasn’t working. She said she couldn’t come down because of her age, which was understandable.And I was reluctant to climb 11 floors with a heavy bag on my back that I couldn’t have just dumped at the reception. She left it to me. I decided to go for it. Huffing and puffing, I reached her door and rang the bell. She called me inside and made tea for me. Most of all, she treated me with a lot of respect, which doesn’t happen too often. It was really overwhelming.”Customers tend to tip generously if the packets are delivered before time, says Swamy of Runnr. No wonder then that some delivery boys wait for a favourite customer to order again. For Subhash Bhusalu, 39, a Scootsy rider, Bollywood singer Shaan is that favourite customer. He refers to him as “Shaan Sir”. “Whenever I deliver a package at Shaan Sir’s house, he doesn’t have any airs. He gives me a good tip as well. I last met him while delivering a packet on Dussehra. He wished me and thanked me.”While most delivery boys with Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and eBay have a holiday on Diwali, the hyperlocal delivery executives don’t have the same luxury. They let on that they would have loved to spend the day with their families. Instead they will be out and about, until sunset, delivering gifts and meals to other homes celebrating Diwali. Some of them worry that since they will be working in areas far from their homes, they won’t make it for the evening puja either. “I will touch my parents’ feet in the morning before I leave for work. That will be my Diwali puja. I have to work so that they can celebrate,” says Bhusalu.Working on Diwali day will get them maximum incentives. That is why Amir Singh, a 55-year-old field executive at hyperlocal grocery delivery service Grofers, isn’t fretting it. “I’m working half-day on Diwali but will get salary for the full day. My family is happy and I am satisfied with that,” he says.That’s the nature of their job. The more they work, the more they earn to sweeten their Diwali. Negi’s family has already unboxed their gifts. But Delhivery’s Kumar has yet to buy a shawl for his mother, a puja accessory for his dad, a sari for the wife and a toy for his son.On this Diwali morning, one of these delivery boys will be on his way to deliver a parcel, hoping to wrap up early and go back home. He could be Kumar who wants to get off his bike, unstrap the helmet and hand over some Diwali gifts — for his own family, this time.