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Mumbai's dabbawalas carry home-cooked lunches to offices by suburban train every working day and bring the empty boxes back, guided by codes painted on each box instead of addresses.

Harvard Business School / RICS

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The story behind the card

A dabba is a lunchbox, and a dabbawala is 'one who carries a box'. The service began in 1890, when Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started delivering lunches in Bombay with about a hundred men, for office workers who had long journeys and wanted food from home. Today 4,500 to 5,000 dabbawalas move between 175,000 and 200,000 lunchboxes a day. Each box passes through several hands: it is collected from a kitchen, sorted at a station, carried by train, sorted again and delivered, using letters, numbers and colours painted on the lid. A famous claim says they make one mistake in six or eight million deliveries, but it came from a Forbes journalist's extrapolation from the association president's estimate of 'maybe once every two months', not from any audit.

Türkçe oku
Mumbai'nin dabbawalaları her iş günü evlerde pişen öğle yemeklerini banliyö trenleriyle ofislere taşır, boş kapları da geri getirir. Yollarını adres yerine her kabın üstüne boyanmış kodlarla bulurlar.

Dabba yemek kabı, dabbawala da “kutu taşıyan” demektir. Hizmet 1890'da, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche'nin Bombay'da yaklaşık yüz kişiyle, işe uzun yoldan gelen ve evinin yemeğini isteyen ofis çalışanlarına öğle yemeği taşımaya başlamasıyla doğdu. Bugün 4.500 ile 5.000 arasında dabbawala, günde 175.000 ile 200.000 arasında yemek kabı taşıyor. Her kap birkaç elden geçer: Mutfaktan alınır, istasyonda ayrılır, trenle taşınır, yeniden ayrılır ve teslim edilir; bunun için kapağa boyanmış harfler, sayılar ve renkler kullanılır. Ünlü bir iddiaya göre altı ya da sekiz milyon teslimatta bir hata yaparlar. Oysa bu rakam bir denetimden değil, bir Forbes muhabirinin, dabbawala derneğinin başkanının “belki iki ayda bir” tahmininden yola çıkarak yaptığı hesaptan doğdu.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Dabbawala
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