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. Thank you a lot for sharing this with all of us you actually recognise what you are speaking approximately!
    Bookmarked. Please also visit my site =). We may have a
    link exchange contract among us

  2. Do you mind if I quote a couple of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back to your blog?
    My blog site is in the very same area of interest as yours and my users
    would definitely benefit from a lot of the information you present here.
    Please let me know if this alright with you. Regards!

  3. Hi, i think that i noticed you visited my website thus i came to
    return the choose?.I’m trying to in finding things to improve my website!I suppose its good enough to make use of a few of your ideas!!

  4. Hey there, I think your blog might be having
    browser compatibility issues. When I look at your website in Safari, it looks fine but when opening
    in Internet Explorer, it has some overlapping.

    I just wanted to give you a quick heads up!
    Other then that, great blog!

  5. Pretty part of content. I just stumbled upon your blog and in accession capital to claim that
    I get actually enjoyed account your weblog posts. Anyway I will be subscribing on your feeds and even I success you get admission to constantly
    rapidly.

  6. Greetings from California! I’m bored to tears at work so I decided to check out your website on my iphone during lunch
    break. I enjoy the info you present here and
    can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how
    quick your blog loaded on my mobile .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G ..
    Anyhow, good site!

  7. Hi this is somewhat of off topic but I was wondering if blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML.
    I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding knowledge so I wanted to get guidance from
    someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  8. [B – Путешествия, РґРѕСЂРѕРіРё, маршруты.[/B – [URL=https://saabclub.xf2.site/index.php?forums/%D0%90%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%8B-%D0%B8-%D0%90%D0%B2%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8B.31/ – Авто Club Saab[/URL – [U – Обсуждение новостей РІ РјРёСЂРµ авто. Общие технические РІРѕРїСЂРѕСЃС‹. Обмен опытом.[/U –

  9. Nice post. I learn something new and challenging on websites I stumbleupon every day.
    It will always be useful to read content from
    other authors and use a little something from other web sites.

  10. I like the helpful information you provide in your articles.

    I’ll bookmark your blog and check again here regularly.
    I am quite certain I’ll learn plenty of new stuff right here!
    Good luck for the next!

  11. Hello, i think that i noticed you visited my site so
    i came to return the choose?.I’m attempting to in finding issues to improve my site!I guess its good enough to use a few of
    your ideas!!

  12. You actually make it seem so easy together with your presentation however
    I in finding this matter to be really one thing that I believe I’d by no means understand.
    It seems too complicated and extremely huge for me. I am having a look forward in your next post, I will attempt to get the grasp of it!

  13. Great post. I was checking constantly this blog and I
    am impressed! Extremely useful information specially the last part 🙂 I care for such info a lot.
    I was seeking this particular info for a long time.
    Thank you and good luck.

  14. What’s up, all the time i used to check webpage posts here
    in the early hours in the dawn, for the reason that i love to find out more and more.

  15. Does your website have a contact page? I’m having problems locating it but, I’d
    like to send you an email. I’ve got some ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing.

    Either way, great site and I look forward to seeing it improve over time.

  16. My spouse and I stumbled over here coming from a different website and thought I
    might check things out. I like what I see so
    i am just following you. Look forward to looking into your web page yet again.

  17. Superb blog! Do you have any tips and hints for aspiring writers?
    I’m hoping to start my own blog soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
    Would you suggest starting with a free platform like WordPress or go for
    a paid option? There are so many options out there that I’m totally confused ..
    Any recommendations? Kudos!

  18. Undeniably believe that which you stated. Your favorite justification appeared to be on the net the simplest
    thing to be aware of. I say to you, I certainly get annoyed while people consider worries
    that they plainly do not know about. You managed to hit the nail
    upon the top and defined out the whole thing without having
    side effect , people could take a signal. Will likely be back to get more.
    Thanks

Leave a Reply

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