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!

2,742 thoughts on “Dabbawallas”

  1. Oh my goodness! Impressive article dude! Thanks,
    However I am experiencing problems with your RSS. I don’t understand the reason why
    I am unable to join it. Is there anybody else having
    similar RSS issues? Anyone who knows the solution will you kindly respond?
    Thanks!!

  2. An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a friend who had
    been conducting a little homework on this. And he actually
    bought me dinner simply because I found
    it for him… lol. So allow me to reword this….
    Thanks for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending the time to discuss this matter here on your web page.

  3. Heya! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone 3gs!
    Just wanted to say I love reading through your blog
    and look forward to all your posts! Carry on the excellent
    work!

  4. Hey I am so excited I found your webpage, I really found you by
    accident, while I was researching on Bing for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say cheers for a remarkable post and
    a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to look over it
    all at the moment but I have bookmarked it and also added in your
    RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please
    do keep up the awesome work.

  5. Hey just wanted to give you a quick heads up.

    The text in your content seem to be running off the screen in Firefox.
    I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue
    or something to do with internet browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let you know.
    The design and style look great though! Hope you get the issue resolved soon. Many thanks

  6. Good day! This is kind of off topic but I need some
    help from an established blog. Is it difficult to set up your own blog?
    I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty fast.
    I’m thinking about making my own but I’m not sure where to start.
    Do you have any tips or suggestions? With thanks

  7. Wow, awesome blog layout! How long have you been blogging for?
    you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your web site is wonderful,
    let alone the content!

  8. Excellent goods from you, man. I have consider your stuff previous to and
    you are just extremely magnificent. I really like what you
    have bought right here, certainly like what you are stating and
    the best way wherein you assert it. You are making it enjoyable
    and you still care for to stay it sensible. I cant
    wait to read far more from you. That is really a great website.

  9. Hi, i believe that i noticed you visited my blog thus
    i got here to go back the choose?.I am trying to in finding
    issues to enhance my web site!I guess its ok
    to make use of a few of your concepts!!

  10. I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme.
    Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you?
    Plz answer back as I’m looking to construct my own blog and would like to know where u
    got this from. many thanks

  11. I believe everything published made a lot of sense. But, what about this?

    what if you were to write a awesome post title? I am not suggesting
    your information isn’t good., however suppose you added a headline that makes people desire
    more? I mean Dabbawallas – Bryanna Vs The World is kinda plain. You could peek
    at Yahoo’s front page and note how they write article titles to
    get viewers interested. You might add a video or
    a pic or two to grab people interested about what you’ve written. Just my
    opinion, it might make your blog a little livelier.

  12. Everything typed was actually very logical. But, what about this?
    suppose you added a little information? I am not saying your content is not good., however
    what if you added a post title to possibly grab people’s attention? I mean Dabbawallas – Bryanna
    Vs The World is kinda boring. You could glance at Yahoo’s home page and watch how they write
    article titles to grab people to click. You might try adding a video or a related pic or two to get people interested about
    what you’ve written. In my opinion, it would make your posts a little
    bit more interesting.

  13. Hello, i think that i saw you visited my blog so i came to “return the favor”.I am
    trying to find things to enhance my website!I suppose its ok to use a few of your ideas!!

  14. I’ve been surfing online more than 3 hours today, yet I never found
    any interesting article like yours. It’s pretty worth enough for me.
    In my view, if all site owners and bloggers made good
    content as you did, the internet will be a lot more useful than ever
    before.

  15. I was curious if you ever thought of changing the layout of your site?
    Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
    But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so
    people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot of text for only having 1 or two
    images. Maybe you could space it out better?

  16. You actually make it appear really easy together with your presentation however
    I find this topic to be really one thing which I feel I might
    by no means understand. It seems too complicated and very large for
    me. I’m looking ahead to your subsequent publish, I will attempt to
    get the cling of it!

  17. This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger.

    I have joined your rss feed and look forward to seeking more of
    your great post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social
    networks!

  18. You actually make it appear so easy along with your presentation however I in finding this matter to be really
    one thing which I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and extremely large for me.
    I am having a look forward to your next post, I will try to get the dangle of it!

  19. It’s really a great and helpful piece of info.

    I’m glad that you simply shared this helpful information with us.
    Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.

  20. My programmer is trying to persuade me to move to .net from PHP.

    I have always disliked the idea because of the expenses.
    But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using Movable-type on a variety of websites for about a year and am worried about switching to another
    platform. I have heard good things about blogengine.net.
    Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into it?
    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  21. You actually make it seem really easy together with your presentation but I in finding this topic to be actually one thing that I think I might never understand.
    It sort of feels too complex and extremely wide for me.
    I am having a look ahead in your next put up,
    I will try to get the hold of it!

  22. Appreciating the persistence you put into your website and detailed information you provide.

    It’s awesome to come across a blog every once in a while that isn’t the same out of
    date rehashed information. Wonderful read! I’ve bookmarked your site
    and I’m including your RSS feeds to my Google account.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *