Mumbaicha Dabewalla (Zahra Gabuji)

Mumbaicha Dabewalla

Emanating from Indian kitchens every morning is the aroma and amalgamation of crushed spices, herbs, lentils, meat and vegetables made by the members of the house, creating ‘The Great Indian meal’. This is the only country where a home-made lunch depicts ‘Maa ka pyaar’ and banking on this came Dabbawallas ,way back in 1890 ,with the idea of delivering home cooked meals to office goers at their workplace. Dabbawallas have, today, become an integral part of Mumbai’s mosaic. More than 5,000 dabbawallas fight rain, heat and storm; walk, use bicycles and travel by local trains, every morning, to deliver two lakh dabbas to their destination. They start their day by collecting dabbas at 7.30am depending on the area, after which they meet at the station, to begin, delivering them. The dabbas need to be delivered to the specified residential  addresses by 12.30pm, and these punctual dabbawalas return to the same offices, schools, colleges to collect the dabbas at 2.30pm and going back again to return the dabbas to the customers at their respective houses. This process is cyclical and these workers extremely efficient.

Phew!

They can give any MBA student or financial head a run for their money. Most of them semi-literate or ill-literate, work together as a team and apply many business strategies to provide faultless delivery. This success depends on their amazing time management skills during which they juggle as many as twenty or thirty dabbas, all needing to be delivered at, more or less, the same time. Sandeep Sawant, 24, has been working as a dabbawalla for the last nine years. He says, “I was meant to be a dabbawala. My father was also a dabbawala, and at his time this profession was not respected. But today I get a lot of respect from people around me. They realise this job requires hard work and courage,”

This labour intensive process is executed brilliantly. All dabbas are coded with numbers and colours that only the dabbawalas can identify. This tells them where the food comes from, which station it will be unloaded and which address it must reach. Each dabba costs 350 to 400 rupees per month. 

Sipping on chai while watching the lashing rain outside, Pandari Nath, 26, says, “We deliver dabbas even during festivals; political strife and we never go on strike,” This hard work, however, is not valued since the dabbawallas are being paid a nominal seven or eight thousand rupees per month and most of them have a minimum of four members in the family to support. In spite of this, Dabbawallas are very passionate and committed towards the job. They feel it is their moral duty to deliver each dabba on time since there are tons of hungry people waiting for their daily meal. Govind Raghunath Aradi, 22, says, “We do not eat until all the dabbas are delivered. We interact with our clients and build a personal relationship through continuous communication,”

“Most of the dabbawallas are from the interiors of Pune, from the hilly regions of Khed and Junnar and that is why they are so physically fit,” adds, Vikrant Katare, A Tata employee. Tata has set up money booths in these villages, for the convenience of these dabbawallas. They can transfer money within five minutes by exchanging codes with there family. This is a faster and cheaper way for them to transfer money, since money order costs minimum of rupees hundred. “This is the least we can do for a man force that make our lives easier,” says Katare.

All dabbawallas are a part of the ‘Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust’, and wear the Gandhi topi as their trademark style. They have a fan club that includes Salman Khan, Richard Branson and Prince Charles. They have been given the ‘Six Sigma’ certification by the Forbes Magazine, because of the outstanding service and high quality standards. Many dabbawallas have even given lectures at Indian and International universities about time management, team work and dedication. Zainab Nagree, 22, Doctor, says, “I receive my dabba on time everyday. I am mesmerized at the way they function,” The dabbawalas do not use the internet or any other database for communication and that is one of the reasons why they are so appreciated in today’s technology-savvy world. “They promote healthy home cooked food. They also have services where food can be delivered to you from quality restaurants, which guarantee healthy and home cooked food,” says Katare.

Dabbawallas have retained the old world charm of Mumbai through there style of working. There work is inspirational and they are truly the Mumbai icons.

References:

http://www.mydabbawala.com/presentation/dabbawalalessionMET.pdf

(A documentation about Dabbawallas)

http://www.mydabbawala.com/general/aboutdabbawala.htm

 (Offical website of the Tiffin service organization)

 http://www.mydabbawala.com/presentation/Whatyoucanlearnfromadabbawalla.pdf

(A pdf file found on the offical website)

‘Mumbaicha Dabewalla’ the title of this post is taken, from a Marathi film by the same name.