Pyjamas and Gandhi Tops - Dabbawallah
I've never personally experienced the efficiency and punctuality of the infamous Bombay dabbahwallahs, but from the day I learnt about them I have always been intrigued. Some of you may have personally experienced this, while others may have heard about it. I figured the nomadlife community would find this tiffin carrier phenomenon interesting.
"The fact that makes Bombay's dabbawalla system unique and incredible is the complexity of the task and the simplicity of its operation. It is not a set-up where an individual man delivers one or even five lunches. It is a gargantuan service in which some 2,000 men carry over a hundred thousand dabbas every day across the city's 60-kilometre sprawl in an inter-woven relay with each dabba changing hands at least four times." - UppercrustIndia.com
"This is the saga of "dabawalla'-the tiffin-carrier guy who picks up the lunch-box in the morning and unfailingly delivers it on time to your place of work, wherever it maybe in Mumbai, at a highly economic price. Daily about 200,000 meals are delivered by this system at an average cost of Rs. 325 (US $ 7) per month. Some may find his task trivial in the overall scheme of things but his clients will willingly testify on his importance of daily receiving home-cooked food so lovingly cooked by the mother, wife or sister at their place of work.
You can't fail to marvel at their system, with an annual turnover of Rs. 50,000,000 (US $ 10 million) and 4,500 carriers who meet and exchange tiffin-boxes at public places like railway station, etc. without ever causing a jam or any confusion. Just like a well-oiled Olympic relay team. Lunch-boxes are sorted and exchanged in a jiffy, with absolutely zero documentation involved. Yet rarely it has happened that a lunch has missed its destined belly." - Dinodia.com
And ofcourse, Prince Charles' recent visit to India and his meeting with the dabbahwallahs. - BBC
Even wikipedia has covered it. I know a lot of out there have stories to tell about our tiffin carrier heros. Let's hear em!
"The fact that makes Bombay's dabbawalla system unique and incredible is the complexity of the task and the simplicity of its operation. It is not a set-up where an individual man delivers one or even five lunches. It is a gargantuan service in which some 2,000 men carry over a hundred thousand dabbas every day across the city's 60-kilometre sprawl in an inter-woven relay with each dabba changing hands at least four times." - UppercrustIndia.com
"This is the saga of "dabawalla'-the tiffin-carrier guy who picks up the lunch-box in the morning and unfailingly delivers it on time to your place of work, wherever it maybe in Mumbai, at a highly economic price. Daily about 200,000 meals are delivered by this system at an average cost of Rs. 325 (US $ 7) per month. Some may find his task trivial in the overall scheme of things but his clients will willingly testify on his importance of daily receiving home-cooked food so lovingly cooked by the mother, wife or sister at their place of work.
You can't fail to marvel at their system, with an annual turnover of Rs. 50,000,000 (US $ 10 million) and 4,500 carriers who meet and exchange tiffin-boxes at public places like railway station, etc. without ever causing a jam or any confusion. Just like a well-oiled Olympic relay team. Lunch-boxes are sorted and exchanged in a jiffy, with absolutely zero documentation involved. Yet rarely it has happened that a lunch has missed its destined belly." - Dinodia.com
And ofcourse, Prince Charles' recent visit to India and his meeting with the dabbahwallahs. - BBC
Even wikipedia has covered it. I know a lot of out there have stories to tell about our tiffin carrier heros. Let's hear em!
posted by Alternate Vision at 3:38 PM
5 Comments:
man that is the coolest shit ever. i want one.
put this as number one on the list of "so so so wouldnt work in Cairo" business models.
5:25 PM
man that is the coolest shit ever. i want one.
put this as number one on the list of "so so so wouldnt work in Cairo" business models.
5:31 PM
man that is the coolest shit ever. i want one.
put this as number one on the list of "so so so wouldnt work in Cairo" business models.
5:31 PM
like so many things in india at first you don't notice what's going on, then somebody tells you that story and suddenly you see the tiffin-cans and the old men in white clothes everywhere. and if you happen to be at mumbai's victoria station around lunchtime, like it happened to me, you stand and watch in awe the procession of food cans and the exchange and redirection of them.
the actual reason behind the fact that the system is based on colour-coding and not on written documentation is that this enables illiterate people to take up the job.
it is an absolutely fascinating system which is perfectly adapted to the local situation. maybe worth a study by one of the DHL geeks who hang around nomadlife? ;)
6:18 PM
Transportation means for these tiffins can range from public buses, cycle rickshaws, bicycles, bullock carts & even maasi (traditional gujarati term for women force) network.
These tiffins were even used to implant crude bombs that exploded almost simultaneously in 3 different buses in Ahmedabad during the communal riots of 2002, which showed the other facet of these tiffins being used as bomb carriers rather than food!
6:48 PM
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