Dabbawallas

Hey fellow adventurers! I’ve been looking forward to this blog post all month! I’m honestly in awe of the Dabbawallas! Maybe, by the end you’ll understand why.

Dabbawallas are an essential part of everyday life in Mumbai. For 800 rupees ($12.50 USD) a month, Indians can get a homecooked meal delivered to them 6 days a week. Their organizational system is one of the best in the world with some saying they only make one mistake every million deliveries and others saying six million. Either way, they’re the best delivery men I know of! They definitely put my local pizza hut to shame!

Dabba is the name of the cylinder metal container (tiffin) that the food comes in and wala refers to the man that carries those lunches. Dabbawalla roughly translates to “tiffin box delivery man” or “the one who carries the box.” Wives and mothers of the men that sign up for this service make their loved ones home cooked meals. The Dabbawallas pick up those meals from their homes and take it to the recipient’s work or school via train and bicycle by 1PM (13:00). It’s essential that they deliver these lunches on time. But it’s also important that the recipients give their empty containers back to the Dabbawallas on time as well. If the recipients fail to give their empty containers to the Dabbawallas three times, they’re dropped as a customer. Apart from the train, the Dabbawallas don’t use any modern devices to help them in their delivery. Over 200,000 lunches are delivered by Dabbawallas every day.

Recognizing that India needed a service that delivers hot food to busy, working men, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started a lunch delivery service with about 100 men. Today, there are at least 5,000 Dabbawallas delivering food, and the service is still growing. Dabbawallas wear white kurtas and white Gandhi caps. Each Dabbawalla earns 8,000 rupees ($125 USD) a month, making this service one of the better paying labor jobs in India. Many of the Dabbawallas either have low literacy skills or are illiterate so the system uses mostly colors and numbers to direct men as to where the food should go. But I can’t explain as well as Dabbawalla so I highly suggest you listen to this man describe the system (it’s a short video): http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170119-the-ingenious-codes-of-indias-dabbawalla

In 2014, a movie centered around this service came out called The Lunchbox. I haven’t seen it yet but it looks interesting and the critics at Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 98% so that’s promising. They describe it as: “Middle class housewife Ila is trying once again to add some spice to her marriage, this time through her cooking. She desperately hopes that this new recipe will finally arouse some kind of reaction from her neglectful husband. She prepares a special lunchbox to be delivered to him at work, but, unbeknownst to her, it is mistakenly delivered to another office worker, Saajan, a lonely man on the verge of retirement. Curious about the lack of reaction from her husband, Ila puts a little note in the following day’s lunchbox, in the hopes of getting to the bottom of the mystery. This begins a series of lunchbox notes between Saajan and Ila, and the mere comfort of communicating with a stranger anonymously soon evolves into an unexpected friendship. Gradually, their notes become little confessions about their loneliness, memories, regrets, fears, and even small joys. They each discover a new sense of self and find an anchor to hold on to in the big city of Mumbai that so often crushes hopes and dreams. Still strangers physically, Ila and Saajan become lost in a virtual relationship that could jeopardize both their realities.” Trailer here:

Though times are changing in India just like the rest of the world. With more and more women working in India, some women don’t have the time to make a hot lunch to be delivered to their husbands. If this trend continues, the delivery system will be forced to change. There’s some talk that the wives of the Dabbawalla might need to be the ones that make the lunches in the future. As of right now though, most women are still at home and making lunches for the husbands.

Are you lot impressed like I am? Feel free to post your opinions in the comment section below! I would love to know! Thank you so much for reading my blog! And until our next adventure!