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English (3300002)
Section 2-A: Comprehension Passages
Dabbawalas:
Mumbai’s Best Managed Business
Amberish Diwanji
Prepared and Presented by
Imran Khan Mh. Yusufzay
(Asst. Prof. in English)
Om Institute of Engineering & Technology, Junagadh.

Dabbawalas: Mumbai’s Best Managed Business


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Dictionary Definition
• Personality
The combination of characteristics or qualities
that form an individual’s distinctive character:
• Management
The process of dealing with or controlling things
or people:

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Main Points to highlight…
•
•
•
•
•
•

Who is Dabbawala in Mumbai?
History of Dabbawalas.
Why Dabbawala?
Dabbawals’ Daily Schedule / How they work?
What makes Dabbawalas so unique?
Their Achievements

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Dabbawalas’ Story
• We are Dabbawala, (one who carries the box),
in the Indian city of Mumbai. We carry and
deliver freshly made food from customer’s
home in a lunch box (Dabba) and deliver it to
offices.
• It may sound simple, but it’s not.

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Our Story
• It is actually a highly specialized trade that has
evolved in its current form over a century and
has become integral to Mumbai’s culture.
Information taken from Dabbawalas’ official
website http://mumbaidabbawala.in/about-us/

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Who is Dabbawala in Mumbai?
• Dabba means a Tiffin box
• Dabbawals are the people who deliver home
cooked meals to the workers working in
different organizations of Mumbai at their
workplaces and return empty Tiffin boxes to
their homes, in some cases, caterers.
• They are not caterers; they deliver home
cooked food to the workers from their home to
their office.
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Who is Dabbawala in Mumbai?
• Total there are 5,000 Dabbawalas
• Each one carries at least 40 Dabbas
• So total they deliver 2,00,000 dabbas
everyday!
• For this they charge 300 to 350 Rs only per
month
• 2,00,000 X 300 = 6,0000000 / 5000 = 12,000
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Who is Dabbawala in Mumbai?
Often house wives send notes to their hubbies in
boxes… 

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History of Dabbawalas
• It all started about 125 years back when a
Parasi banker wanted to have home cooked
food regularly in office and gave this
responsibility to the first ever Dabbawala.
Other people also liked the idea and the
demand for Dabba delivery soared.
• Registered as Charitable Trust in 1956

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History of Dabbawalas
• Migration to the city had just begun & people wanted
home cooked food
• As the city grew, the demand for dabba delivery grew
too. Our forefathers had the vision to create the
Dabba coding system that’s going on strong even
today.
• People from different states in Mumbai (like South
Indians and Gujaraties) want their traditional food,
Dabbawalas’ service began to fill this growing need..

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Raghunath Medge
President, Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust

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Why should Dabbawala carry your Tiffin?
1. Person has to leave early in the
morning for his office, so it is bit
difficult for a mother, wife or sister to
make Tiffin so early in the morning
2. Home cooked food has love and
affection of mother or wife!
3. Traffic in Mumbai local train makes it
difficult for you to carry a Tiffin
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Traffic in Mumbai Local Train

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Traffic in Mumbai Local Train

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Traffic in Mumbai Local Train

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Traffic in Mumbai Local Train

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Traffic in Mumbai Local Train

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Traffic in Mumbai Local Train

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Dabbawals’ Daily Schedule

How they work and
manage time?

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Task 1
The process
beings early in the
morning. Cooked
food is picked up
from houses and
caterers by
dabbawallahs and
taken to the
nearest railway
station

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Task 2
There, the
different tiffin
boxes are sorted
out for specific
destination
stations and
loaded onto large,
rectangular trays
accordingly.

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Task 3
These trays
carrying 40
boxes travel in
local trains down
to various
stations.

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Uploading Dabbas on Mumbai local trains

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Task 4
At each station
there are another
set of
dabbawallahs
who quickly take
the dabbas meant
to be distributed
in that area and
push in dabba
meant for another
station.

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Please Note
• A mumbai local halts at a station for
about 20 seconds or less and thus
the dabbawallahs have to work with
precision and speed.
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Task 5
At each station,
the boxes are
once more sorted
or localities and
offices and taken
by handcarts or
sometimes carried
by individuals.

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0% use of technology, they use hand carts

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0% use of technology, they use hand carts

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0% use of technology, they use hand carts

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0% use of technology, they use hand carts

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0% use of technology, they use hand carts

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Or they use bicycle !

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Or they use bicycle !

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Or they use bicycle !

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Or they use bicycle !

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“We carry up to 35 kg for distance of a couple of
kilometers,” points out Medge.

Solid Physical Stamina – 40 Dabbas per tray
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“We carry up to 35 kg for distance of a couple of
kilometers,” points out Medge.

Solid Physical Stamina – 40 Dabbas per tray
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“We carry up to 35 kg for distance of a couple of
kilometers,” points out Medge.

Solid Physical Stamina – 40 Dabbas per tray
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“We carry up to 35 kg for distance of a couple of
kilometers,” points out Medge.

Solid Physical Stamina – 40 Dabbas per tray
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Task 6
The boxes are
placed in the
offices’ reception
area by 12:30 pm
and are picked up
from the same
spot by the
deliverer a couple
of hours later.

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Task 7
The whole
process then starts
again in the
reverse. The
boxes are picked
up from the
offices, taken to
the nearest station
and sorted for
their journey
home.

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Let us see their line of action….

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Cooked food
collected
from home

Again sorting
according to
destination

loaded onto
hand carts or
bicycle

Taken to the
nearest railway
station

Another group
of DW collects
on the next
station

Sorting &
loaded on
trays

Uploading in
the local
train

Placed in
the office

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Placed at
destination
home

Taken to the
nearest railway
station

Again sorting
according to
destination

Uploading in
the local
train

loaded onto
hand carts or
bicycle

Sorting &
loaded on
trays

Another group
of DW collects
on the next
station

Collected
Dabba from
office

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Meet Dabbawala in Mumbai

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What makes Dabbawalas so unique?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Honesty and integrity
Regularity and punctuality everyday
Discipline and Time Management
Sharp memory – No use of technology
Pride for their work
Stick to time and work is worship
Customer is God! (Example of Prince Charles)

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What makes Dabbawalas so unique?
•
•
•
•
•

Accuracy, commitment and team work
Error is horror
Precision and speed
Solid stamina, man power and unity
They are illiterate yet they understand coding system
for fault less deliver
• They are the best in time management and perfection
• Even in heavy rain of Mumbai, their service
continues…
• All these points are applicable to us also

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Even in heavy rain of Mumbai, their
service continues…

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Even in heavy rain of Mumbai, their
service continues…

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Even in heavy rain of Mumbai, their
service continues…

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Dabbawalas’ Ethics & Discipline
• No alcohol / drinking / smoking is allowed
during working hours
• ID card and white Gandhi topi is must on duty
• Leave without prior notice is not allowed
• No Dabbawala ever so misbeviour with the
customer or any of his family member while
collecting or dropping the Dabba…

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Code of Conduct
•
•
•
•

500 Rs fine for drinking on duty
100 Rs fine for smoking on duty
25 Rs fine for not wearing cap
1000 Rs fine for leave without prior notice,
Sacked if repeated more than 2 times

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Everyday Work & Perfection
• Every day 1,75,000 to 2,00,000 Tiffin boxes
are delivered
• Color codes are used for faultless delivery
• These code may baffle (confuse) a
cryptographer and uneducated dabbawalas can
understand these codes!

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Coding System
• The Coding system evolved through various
stages with time. In the beginning it was simple
colour coding. Now Mumbai is a widely spread
metro with 3 local train routes. Our coding has
also evolved into alpha numeric characters.
• Information taken from official Dabbawalas’
official website
http://mumbaidabbawala.in/about-us/

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Coding System

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Short Film on Mumbai Dabbawala

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Not Employees but it’s a Trust
• All are share-holders and they share
earnings
• No unions and strikes since 1890
• Trust provides schools for the
children and health care in
emergency to its members
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Secret of their unity!
• All Dabbawalas are tight knit (well organized)
because all come from same region, Pune
district in Maharashtra.
• They join outsider as an employ on a fixed
salary, after he wins their trust, they make him
a share holder

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Secret of their unity!
• All the share holders have common customs &
traditions and they worship Vithoba of
Pandharpur
• They fast on Prabhodini Ekadashi

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Why this business is most befitting
in Mumbai?
• Mumbai’s geography is like this: All the
residences are in the north and offices in the
south so this makes Dabbawala’s job very
simple
• In Delhi, this business didn’t work as it is a
circular city

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Mumbai’s Geography matches
Mumbai

Delhi

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Prince Charles (the King of London) meets Dabbawalas

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Prince Charles (the King of London) meets Dabbawalas

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Prince Charles (the King of London) meets Dabbawalas

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements
Mr Richard Branson,
the founder of Virgin Group,

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements
Mr Richard Branson, the
founder of Virgin Group,
travelled with
Dabbawalas like a
Dabbawala and delivered
a huge tiffin to his own
employees at Virgin,
Mumbai.

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements
Mr Richard Branson, the
founder of Virgin Group,
travelled with
Dabbawalas like a
Dabbawala and delivered
a huge tiffin to his own
employees at Virgin,
Mumbai.

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements
Bollywood film actor
Baman Irani (C) promotes
a business channel's reality
show “The Pitch” with
Mumbai’s Dabbawala
(Tiffin service) in Mumbai
on October 13, 2010.

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements
Karisma Kapoor Unveils
Tempo Products with
Dabbawalas - Pics

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Dr. Pawan Agarval has done Ph.D. on Dabbawalas

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Dabbawalas’ lectures in Prestigious Institutes & B-Schools

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Raghunath Medge is invited as a guest of honor at Business School

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Mr. Medge was invited to deliver a talk in IIM, Lucknow

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Dabbawalas with the students of IIM, Raipur.
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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Dabbawalas with the students of IIM, Raipur.
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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

iLEAD In Association With Shark’s International
Hosted A Talk Show On “Mumbai Dabbawalas”
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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

iLEAD In Association With Shark’s International
Hosted A Talk Show On “Mumbai Dabbawalas”
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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Dabbawals with Volkswagen

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements

Dabbawals with Volkswagen

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements
• World Record in Time Management!
• Name in Guiness World Record!

• Eminent personalities like Prince Charles
have visited Dabbawalas & Prince even

invited them to his wedding.
• Registered with Repley’s “Believe it or not”
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Ripley's Believe It or Not!
• Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise,
founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in
bizarre events and items so strange and
unusual that readers might question the claims.
The Believe It or Not panel proved popular and
was later adapted into a wide variety of
formats, including radio, television, comic
books, a chain of museums and a book series.

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements
• Forbes (an American Magazine) gave this
services its highest quality rating of Sigma 6,
which means that per million transactions,
there is just an error of one. Dabbawala got
Sigma 6 without any application
• Documentary called “Dabbawalas, Mumbai’s
unique lunch service” by two Dutch Film
Makers

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Dabbawalas’ Achievements
• In 1998 two Dutch filmmakers, Jascha De Wilde and Chris
Relleke, made a documentary called "Dabbawalas,
Mumbai's unique lunch service" and in 2001, the Christian
Science Monitor, the Boston-based newspaper, covered the
Dabbawalas in an article called "Fastest Food: It's Big Mac
vs. Bombay's Dabbawallahs.“
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2006/06/27/Bombay-Dabbawalas-go-hightech/UPI-40191151437008/

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Only Mumbaikars alone in the world would have the
option of eating home made food in the offices without
bother of having to carry a cumbersome (troublesome)
lunchbox…. Credit goes to Dabbawalas….

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Meet Mumbai Dabbawala on
www.mumbaidabbawala.in

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References
• Dabbawalas’ Official Website :
www.mumbaidabbawala.in
• Active English, Diploma Engineering Sem I,
GTU.
• www.google.com

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Thank you
Imran Khan
M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed. in English
Asst. Prof. in English
Om Engineering College, Junagadh.
www.imkeng.wordpress.com
Dabbawalas: Mumbai’s Best Managed Business