Mumbai's dabbawalas are a pampered lot. Everyone likes them- Prince Charles invites them for tea at the Buckingham Palace, Management Schools want to study their work ethic and Networking gurus use their numbering technique to come up with a path breaking routing protocol! It looks as if dabbawalas can solve world hunger; of course they can, they are after all in the food business! They seem to be leading such cushy lives, that soon, some of us would have to carry dabbas for the dabbawalas!
We need to find out what turned the business around for the dabbawalas: a new CEO, a new mantra, or a lean-mean, literally hungry workforce ? I am particularly interested because my dabbawala at school was quite a distance from all the good things said about his ilk these days.
Firstly, I just don't see a need for a dabbawala, at least not for a school going kid. It looks more like a fashion statement that the school kid wants to make and at that age, it has to be nipped in the bud. If the kid protests, he needs a little rap on the knuckles and simply ordered to carry his lunch with him. As simple as that!
Anyway, my dabbawala did not add much value. There were more days when my poor mother would have to rush to school because the dabbawala played truant. If he showed up, he would either be late and give me exactly five minutes to gobble up the food or leave someone else's dabba which I couldn't anyway eat because it wasn't vegetarian! Reprimanding him just didn't help. He was oblivious to reproach and continued his delinquent ways.
He was also occasionally known to sample food from different dabbas before he delivered them to the destination. Suspicions arose when the rather skinny dabbawala grew over a period of time into a nice, rosy, rotund figure while the school children actually looked famished! That's when the round of enquiries started and to our disbelief, it was found that the children always received a poori or a chapati less and missed a serving or two of sabzi as well!
But what caused a greater stir was his camaraderie with my friend Baida. Baida was called Baida because of his unusual affinity to score an egg (baida, i.e. zero) in every test. We quite forgot what his real name was. Some said it was Vaidya or Vaidyanathan, but Baida fitted him to the letter. He had to escape Mrs Clare's Maths period after lunch because he hadn't done his homework. Baida was good friends with the dabbawala and actually rode pillion on the dabbawala's bicycle (along with all the dabbas!) to Five Gardens where he would spend the rest of the afternoon just loitering! Well, as luck would have it, both Baida and the dabbawala were caught. For sure, hell broke loose. But Baida and the dabbawala somehow managed to stay afloat and lived to see another day!
We always used our dabbawala as a sort of spokesperson from Mumbai's famed Meteorological Department. Mumbai's rains are unmatched in fury and the dabbawala would be quizzed during the lunch break on the level of flooding at King's Circle. My dabbawala had a standard response. His eyes would bulge and his fingers would be placed just below the nose! We would immediately rush to the Principal's office and scream that the school had to be closed half-day or we risked drowning on our way back home! Sometimes, this plan worked. Based on the testimony of dabbawalas and the number of students crying themselves hoarse, we would be allowed to go home half-day! The sense of accomplishment used to be immense when we found that King's Circle was perfectly fine and had had hardly any rain much less any flooding.
On those days, we truly thanked our dabbawala and ensured that he doesn't get fired!
We need to find out what turned the business around for the dabbawalas: a new CEO, a new mantra, or a lean-mean, literally hungry workforce ? I am particularly interested because my dabbawala at school was quite a distance from all the good things said about his ilk these days.
Firstly, I just don't see a need for a dabbawala, at least not for a school going kid. It looks more like a fashion statement that the school kid wants to make and at that age, it has to be nipped in the bud. If the kid protests, he needs a little rap on the knuckles and simply ordered to carry his lunch with him. As simple as that!
Anyway, my dabbawala did not add much value. There were more days when my poor mother would have to rush to school because the dabbawala played truant. If he showed up, he would either be late and give me exactly five minutes to gobble up the food or leave someone else's dabba which I couldn't anyway eat because it wasn't vegetarian! Reprimanding him just didn't help. He was oblivious to reproach and continued his delinquent ways.
He was also occasionally known to sample food from different dabbas before he delivered them to the destination. Suspicions arose when the rather skinny dabbawala grew over a period of time into a nice, rosy, rotund figure while the school children actually looked famished! That's when the round of enquiries started and to our disbelief, it was found that the children always received a poori or a chapati less and missed a serving or two of sabzi as well!
But what caused a greater stir was his camaraderie with my friend Baida. Baida was called Baida because of his unusual affinity to score an egg (baida, i.e. zero) in every test. We quite forgot what his real name was. Some said it was Vaidya or Vaidyanathan, but Baida fitted him to the letter. He had to escape Mrs Clare's Maths period after lunch because he hadn't done his homework. Baida was good friends with the dabbawala and actually rode pillion on the dabbawala's bicycle (along with all the dabbas!) to Five Gardens where he would spend the rest of the afternoon just loitering! Well, as luck would have it, both Baida and the dabbawala were caught. For sure, hell broke loose. But Baida and the dabbawala somehow managed to stay afloat and lived to see another day!
We always used our dabbawala as a sort of spokesperson from Mumbai's famed Meteorological Department. Mumbai's rains are unmatched in fury and the dabbawala would be quizzed during the lunch break on the level of flooding at King's Circle. My dabbawala had a standard response. His eyes would bulge and his fingers would be placed just below the nose! We would immediately rush to the Principal's office and scream that the school had to be closed half-day or we risked drowning on our way back home! Sometimes, this plan worked. Based on the testimony of dabbawalas and the number of students crying themselves hoarse, we would be allowed to go home half-day! The sense of accomplishment used to be immense when we found that King's Circle was perfectly fine and had had hardly any rain much less any flooding.
On those days, we truly thanked our dabbawala and ensured that he doesn't get fired!
Entertaining post... I never liked Dabbas from Dabbawalas anyway... Maybe Im paranoid, but who ensures that hygienic methods of cooking are followed by them... There is no such thing as licensing for them... not tht tht would ensure good and clean food though
ReplyDeleteSarah, Not sure if your dabbawala is the same as ours! In Mumbai, dabbawalas don't cook. They take the food which the lady of the house cooks and only transports them to the destination! Transportation is his only job. The only purpose he serves is to pick the food (around 11:30 am) and delivers it at around 1:00 pm so that the food can be reasonably fresh and hot. That's exactly why it looks completely unnecessary! It's a Mumbai thing! Not sure if anyone outside Mumbai is even aware of this occupation !! - Shankar
ReplyDeleteShankar, reading your blog today for the first time and believe me, i am missing you. I can actually see you telling me all these stories with excellent intonement and gestures. :)
ReplyDeleteAbout Dabbawalas, I did a project on them for my last semester. Harvard has written 2 business cases on them and their perfect delivery, pick-up timings, accuracy for delivering the right dabba to the right person and doing it even in bad weather and rains. Your story truly depicts another side of the coin.
Sarah, they tried this outside Mumbai as well in India in other states but didn't work out. Main reasons cited were 1) the lack of well connected public transport facilities of Mumbai 2) the crowd in trains which makes carrying a Dabba inconvenient for office folks and school kids 3) availability of water in the morning for cooking purposes, which is not guaranteed in Mumbai.
-Deepti