Mumbai “dabbawala” culture

by Abha Malpani on

I never thought I’d be sitting in Madrid, wishing that there was some “dabbawala” to bring me cheap, homemade, Indian food.

“Dabbawala” literally translates to “guy with box”; in this case the box is a tiffin full of food. In India, although fast food is popular, Indians always crave home cooked Indian food and often choose it over street food or McDonald’s. Hectic working schedules make this practically impossible if you don’t have someone cooking for you every morning. Even if you do, the food is cold by lunch time and it doesn’t taste the same when reheated.

The joy of getting hot, home cooked food delivered to you like you’ve specified, at exactly the time you want, is priceless. Mumbai’s dabbawalas make it happen for a fee as little as Rs.250 a month (just over US$6). The food is collected either from homes or from a catering service, then taken to a point where they are color-sorted (the guys are generally illiterate), grouped according to location, and then delivered by train.

More than 200,000 lunches are delivered by about 5000 dabbawalas everyday with an amazing accuracy of menu and time; a recent survey says that they only make one mistake in every 6,000,000 deliveries. There is no day off for the dabbawalas, they have never gone on strike and harsh weather conditions — especially monsoon season — have never stopped them from doing their job well.

What has been awed about the dabbawalas is how they function so accurately, without the use of any modern technology — only recently they have begun accepting orders via SMS. The success of their system has called much attention from business schools as well as tourists and now they have a “Day with the Dabbawalas” itinerary where you can spend a day in Mumbai helping them out — something Richard Branson did on one of his visits to India.

They have been in business for 125 years and it’s one of the systems that truly represents how efficient an Indian city can be, if it wants to.

Times of India and circle of peace: An expat story

by Jamie Rhein on

Even though this was Martha’s week to cover The Amazing Race, I was once again drawn into the foray of the global dash. When the teams were told to pick up The Times of India when they got to Mumbai, I flashed on my own The Times of India connection. It links to the theme of Aaron’s recent expat post and the question of expats and lifestyle.

The expat question is a complicated issue that I have thought about with every place I’ve lived overseas. One notion, I think, has something to do with intention and motivation for living in a country. We didn’t move to New Delhi, India, for example, with the intention of making India a permanent home. I also think it has to do with economics. Expats, in my mind, have more money and perks, in general, than they do when they live in their own country.

Our expat life in India was due to the teaching jobs that took us there. As expats, we were more immersed in India than if we were just traveling there, but we always knew we would eventually move on, so the experience was not the same as if we thought we’d live there for years and years. What people do with their expat experience, however, has to do with how they view living in another culture. Some people live totally surrounded by other expats, often people from their own country. Others, like us, do what they can to make the country that is not theirs feel like home and to take part in the culture as much as possible. Also, when we lived in India, our jobs offered another unique perspective.

When you work with young people like we did as teachers, one goal is to help them see themselves as part of the world community. Kelly wrote about this somewhat when she visited her friends in China and wrote about it in her series, Chinese Buffet. Often, the view happens to be of a place of privilege, but in international and American schools where kids of many nationalities come together in classrooms there is an opportunity to envision a world where everyone might get along.

There are several times when I taught overseas when this vision was evident, but the most powerful was September 11, 2002. Considering the news from Pakistan this past week, I’m reminded about that day, the hope that was generated by a bunch of middle-schoolers, and an essay I wrote about it.

The essay was published in The Times of India and since I found the link, here it is. I have no idea what happened to the paragraphing when the paper put it on-line, but you’ll get the idea. Consider this a story to carry over to the new year. It’s an expat story that offers up the potential for peace. At least if the kids who made the wooden doves that day remember what it felt like.

U.S. Airports Just Now Installing Charging Stations?

by Justin Glow on

I was reading this story over at Yahoo about U.S. airports installing electric charging stations to “bring precious energy more conveniently to millions of travelers who rely on a plethora of battery-powered devices.” Hmm, I thought… that sounds familiar. And then I remembered why.

When I was in India, there wasn’t a single airport I visited that didn’t have something like this. These were the same airports that had dogs running around on the tarmac, and women in saris perched several stories high on bamboo scaffolding to repair a broken P.A. speaker. Point being, these were most definitely NOT high-tech airports, yet they had the same power options that American airports are just getting around to installing. I wonder why that is?

I browsed around my photo collection, but unfortunately could only find a shot of a “facility for charging mobile phones,” which is pictured above. This was taken at the domestic airport in Mumbai.

So what’s been your experience with power options in U.S. airports? Good or bad? Personally, I’ve never had a problem — domestically or otherwise — finding an outlet to use, whether it was part of a charging kiosk or otherwise.

Video: Commuting in Mumbai

by Justin Glow on


I didn’t bring along a video camera to India because I didn’t want to have to deal with making sure it wasn’t broken, lost, or forgotten somewhere. But after I arrived, I immediately realized my mistake because almost every second of every day I was there, I saw video-able material. It’s a good thing other travelers bring along their cameras, or else we wouldn’t have the video above, taken by YouTube user Jaiwit. It’s simply titled “Commuting in Mumbai” which — well, I’ll just let you watch it.

In-freaking-sane. [via]

Where on Earth? Week 12: Elephanta Island, Mumbai, India

by Justin Glow on

I was so impressed with the guess by Stiv last week of Elephanta Island that I completely forgot to write this post on Friday! Sorry, but awesome job, Stiv! (And a shout-out to Carol B for backing him up!) Here I was trying to make the challenge a little more difficult and the Gadling readers still guessed it in less than three hours. Impressive.

I was in India a few months ago, and on our big Mumbai sightseeing day, we took a boat out to Elephanta Island. The thousand-year-old , hand-carved caves on the island were impressive, but what I remember the most is all the different fees we had to pay just to get there. Granted they were all very cheap by USD standards, but even so, we had to pay for the boat ride to the island, a fee once we got off of the pier and onto the island, another fee to be allowed to walk up the vendor-laced stairs, and then another fee at the top to enter the area with the caves. My friend had a video camera, too, so that was another charge — and then you couldn’t even use it in the caves!

This photograph was snapped just outside of the caves, looking out at an area where families sat down to picnic. Monkeys were everywhere on the island — eating trash, harassing dogs, locals, and tourists alike — but somehow I was still able to take this picture without a single one in frame. Amazing.