Don’t talk of fast food. Its negative connotation would taint one of the minutest organisations distributing home-cooked meals. Dabbawallas are unique. Nowhere else do they flood a city as they do in Mumbai with their expert service. Since more than a century, these meal delivery men are involved in crazy logistics to serve in the right time, complete menus arranged in 2, 3 or 4 tier lunch boxes. Stainless steel boxes often arranged in trains before being received by a local dabbawalla and dispatched to the four corners of the city. On their lid, you find simple contact details of the receiver. The relation is based on confidence, loyalty created year after year. A value which minimizes the number of errors in delivery. After the lunch break, boxes are collected, washed and sent back to return the next day, in a new circle of continuous delivery. Monsoon or otherwise, local dabbawallas manage their work with exemplary punctuality. Per day, one estimates more than 1,75,000 meals are distributed by these swift and yet healthy and balanced food workers.
Discover more such interesting facets of Mumbai and its street life on our journal HERE
