Dabbawala - on time , every time.

A dabbawala is a person whose job is to deliver freshly made food from home in lunch boxes to office workers in Mumbai. There are about 4000 to 5000 dabbawalas in Mumbai who work with utmost punctuality to deliver their assigned set of tiffin. Mumbai tiffin service largely runs because of these dabbawalas. This Dabba service in Mumbai is an example of a perfect management.

The tiffin delivery system works on a simple colour coding system for every tiffin. An ID generated with the help of destination and the recipient thus helps the system to run smoothly. The success of such a system largely depends upon teamwork and time management. The BBC has produced a documentary on dabbawalas, and Prince Charles, during his visit to India, visited them .Owing to the tremendous publicity, some of the dabbawalas were even invited to give guest lectures about dabbawala tiffins in top business schools of India.

We might spot a Mumbai Dabbawala either roaming around a bicycle or carrying a wooden crate for the tiffins, dressed in a white cotton kurta-pyjama and the white trademark Gandhi topi (cap). Dabba services use no modern technology yet are the most successful services in Mumbai. We indeed owe the timely delivery of all the school tiffins and lunch boxes to these guys.

It’s very interesting that now one can order a tiffin via a dabbawala through a sms or through online booking. Many famous tiffin services have an exclusive tie up with the Dabbawala across the city. A web site, mydabbawala.com, has also been added to allow for on-line booking, in order to keep up with the times. An on-line poll on the web site ensures that customer feedback is given importance.

Mumbai Dabbawalas no wonder attract such a lot of attention from all over the globe. One should really take some time off and observe their brilliant way of functioning. 

P.S here is the link of the website , which enables online-booking -

http://www.dabbawala.in/

School ka 'Dabba'

The title of this post might remind many of us of the famous hindi movie, ‘Stanley ka Dabba’.The movie was about Stanley and his efforts of getting a perfect dabba to school. It indeed was a movie with a soul and lots of food. If we actually give it a thought then really school tiffins are very important. As a child I remember being bothered so much about my tiffin. My dabba was a matter of pride for me, better and yummier the food, cooler would I be in my class.

Every school child wishes to carry the yummiest dabba to school. For some its for their taste buds, for some its their hunger, and for some others its just a show-off of an awesome dabba and thus an awesome Mom. School tiffins need to be healthy and filling. Children spend a great amount of time in school. Hence the meal they have during school hours is important. Their energy level for the remaining day largely depends on their meal in school. I know of many schools which offer two recesses for the kids, and that’s how even a breakfast tiffin or a short break tiffin is carried by many kids.

Kids need the best of nutrition, hence I would say, ‘School ka dabba’ is the most important dabba and so should be given the most of all the attention.

A filling tiffin