1 in 16m, error-free deliveries by Mumbai dabbawallas

'Dabba' is box, and 'wala' is someone who carries the box, explained Arvind Talekar to a multi-national audience seated in a warehouse called The Fridge in Dubai on Saturday evening. Talekar represents the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust of Mumbai, India.
As a fourth generation dabbawala, Talekar, wearing his white cap that marks him out as a dabbawala, took the stage at The Fridge as a part of the BOLDtalks initiative. At several moments in his talk, the audience laughed appreciatively and clapped at the logic, earnestness and simplicity of his answers.
At one point during the Q&A session, a woman in the audience asked: "What do you do if the trains break down?", to which Talekar replied: "80-85 per cent of Mumbaikars travel on the trains, so if the trains break down, then they can't go to work, which means they don't need their lunch boxes in office."
The simple logic of his answer won him laughs and claps all around. Dabbawalas with their wooden crates - each crate containing 150 steel dabbas - usually occupy the last coach in the train.
Talekar spoke to Khaleej Times before his talk. He said this is his fourth visit to Dubai. For the last five years, he travelled delivering talks and explaining to people the 'business model' of the dabba system.
On being asked if he's heard of or seen this model anywhere else in the world, he said it's unique to Mumbai. "Nowhere else in the world do 5,000 dabbawalas travel three train lines and deliver lunch to 200,000 hungry office workers.
"Every three minutes there is a local train but every train gets more crowded. There are 2,000 services of train in the morning."
You are never too old to be dabbawala
"In our organisation, there is no retirement age," he said. Septuagenarians also deliver dabbas, but they won't have to lift the heavy 60-70kg load of tiffins.
New recruits undergo a three-month training period, during which other members of the dabbawala cooperative gauge how well he works and mingles with others, and assesses if he is a slacker or not. Other than that, the only requirement is for him to know how to ride a bicycle. At that again, the audience titters and laughs.
Mystery of negligible error rate explained
Legend has it that Mumbai dabbawallas' error rate is just one in 16 million deliveries.
How come the error rate is so impressively negligible, KT asked. Talekar explained the coding system. Each box has written on it, with washable paint, the train station destination of the box, the number of the basket it has to go into, the floor number of the office building, and an abbreviated code for building name (see picture). So if a box has to go to Ville Parle, a suburb in Mumbai, the lid of the steel tiffin box will read something like: VP, 3, E, 9 EX12. The markings are circular, in different inks, and the dabbawalas can identify exactly which box goes into which larger crate, headed for which station, which area, which building - the EX for Express Towers - which floor.
It's apparently a fool-proof system. Talekar said there is nothing computerised about it. Computers too, were the product of the human brain, he said.
People ask him about motivation. "You can't buy motivation at a shop. Motivation should come from within."
Lunch Box connect and who erred in film
Had he seen the movie Lunch Box (that shows the wrong dabba going to the wrong person)? Talekar said, "That film was all masala, and it was the office boy's mistake."
Dabbawalas have to be really careful, and it is important that thoroughness and motivation to get it right and on time is ingrained in their minds. He said it is unacceptable for a member of a vegetarian community to get meat in his lunch box, and vice-versa.
"What will happen if Jain bhai's tiffin goes to Shaikh bhai, and Shaikh bhai's tiffin goes to Jain bhai?"
Prince Charles and Richard Branson visits
On November 4, 2003, the Prince of Wales spent 20 minutes with the dabbawalas at Church Gate station because the British High Commission wanted to show him something unique to Mumbai.
In 2005, when Prince Charles wed Camilla Parker Bowles, now Duchess of Cornwall, the dabbawalas received an invite one day before the wedding. In a wonderful example of things working out, their visas were issued in three hours, and Air India funded the travel of two dabbawalas for the wedding. Their gift to the royal newlyweds? Puneri Petha (a turban from Pune), a saree, and kohlapuri chappals.
Richard Branson also spent time with the dabbawalas during his visit, albeit surrounded by bodyguards.
Security concerns stop food recycling scheme
For one month, there was a 'share sticker' campaign to recycle the food wasted in dabbas, and distribute it among street children. Unfortunately, that didn't take off.
"We have stopped that for some security reasons," Talekar said. "Mumbai police also said to not distribute the food."
So now waste food goes back to the homes of the people, and they can put it in the fridge.
No, his kids won't be dabbawalas
Talekar's three children probably won't get into his line of work because it's not a white collar job. Talking of his two girls and a boy, he said Akanksha has a graduated in Commerce from a Mumbai college, Ankita is in the 12th grade and Tejas in the 8th. All his children are inclined towards business, he said.
"This is not a white collar job, maybe they will be connected to the organisation but not in deliveries.
"My wife is proud of me that I am going to give a talk. My children are also proud that papa is going to give talks. I am also proud. I get to learn so much when I go give talks."
nivriti@khaleejtimes.com