Unique way of supplying lunch to office-goers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala It is in Mumbai since many decades. I have seen them function effeciently on my previous visits to that city. Nobody can understand the simple coding and decoding system they use, except themselves. And not a single lunch box goes amiss. Prince Charles (of Great Britain) was impressed when he saw it himself during his recent visit to the city. Their effeciency and popularity are noteworthy!

Power Point slides... a must see.
http://www.slideshare.net/tag/mumbai-dabbawalas

Some pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/akapadia/sets/72157594461824733/

Some videos as well.
http://commentatorno1-mumbaimerijaan.buzznet.com/user/photos/

There was a television documentary on the dabbawallas of Mumbai. It is truly amazing that none of the lunches go astray. I have a stainless tiffin carrier like the one pictured, but alas, not the excellent delivery service to go with it. I must pack and carry my own.

You are your own dabbawala. They transport to distant areas by Mumbai's crowded local trains. The crowd (as in this small picture from the Net - two separate trains are crossing/going) is a real crowd in Mumbai's trains and I have experienced myself. If you do not what is 'jam packed', you have to travel at least once in the rush hour. It's their daily life!

I had never heard of this before. I watched the slide show it was very interesting. How much do you think some of those "boxes" weigh when loaded with their lunches and carried on the head?

Each box would be approximately 750g to 1kg - my guess.

Not so heavy, but looks like an awkward load. Thinking of the delicious meals that must be in them is making me hungry! Sooo...what kind of food might we find in one of those lunches?

Whatever is in the lunch boxes, I bet there are no "special orders" just what you get is what I cooked, LOL.

I was fascinated with the television documentary I saw on the dabbawalas. Thanks for the slides, Dinu!

In the city of Mumbai, life is very hectic and fast. The office-goers have to leave home very early when the spouse has not yet prepared food. Many prefer to have home-food due to various reasons. The work places are quite far off from their homes and most of them depend on their travel by 'local trains' that connect most of big Mumbai. Sometimes they even have to change trains. So the dabbawalas arrive at the doorsteps of homes to collect the lunchboxes (by which time food would be ready, say 9 or 10am). They put each box(with its own individual bag) into their own coded ones and transport. They return the same route. The persons get their lunches delivered (almost fresh, around 1 pm) at their workplaces. The empty boxes are again collected and delivered home (I'm not too sure about this stage - they may even carry back themselves).

The contents will be usually Chapatis and rice items, curd (yoghurt).. I found this interesting link. http://images.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http://photos22.flickr.com/28119385_87e2c52b14.jpg&imgrefurl=http://thecookscottage.typepad.com/curry/poona_aka_pune/index.html&h=253&w=380&sz=25&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=u7jHQLkUMu70AM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmaharastrian%2Bmeal%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3DenLook for a couple of pictures where two plates and two glasses of water are kept. And in another, a hand is taking one chapati after scrolling down. The contets might be some of them! The other pictures too provide good information.

Thank you for the link. So many wonderful foods! The Kheema Samosa recipe is intriguing me (anything that looks deep fryed, ha, ha). I may give a few of these recipes a try, of course I will have to stray a bit in the ingrediants but I think it will be fun to try.

WOW! I totally misread this the first time, you mean the food is prepared by the wife at home and then delivered by the dabbawalas? That is so kewl. I love your country. It looks so warm.

PrairieGirlZ5, I thought from your post yesterday that you understood it was the wife cooking the meal at home (I bet there are no "special orders" just what you get is what I cooked). ;)

It really is a neat custom.

nope merigold, I didn't catch that part, but I bet it's still true, huh? ;)