They cannot take their lunch with them in the morning because their lunch won't be ready by then. Indian lunch meals take time to prepare and are best freshly prepared and eaten.
1. Most ppl want home cooked bc of both religious and health reason. 2. Indian lunch isn't easy and time freindly so can't be prepared early in the morning. 3. Microwaves are not available in most of the workplaces. 4. I personally know a few ppl who use this system bc they love it and want to keep this iconic system alive.
Most Mumbaikars leave for work very early in the morning i.e. around 7:30 because the distance between home and work is huge. And hence it's quite difficult for the ladies at home to prepare lunch at such an early hour in the morning. Because of this incredible service, ladies at home can prepare lunch at their own convenience, and not at 6 in the morning.
Freshly cooked food from home, made by one’s wife, is highly valued in India. We believe, the love and well-wishes of the person who cooked the food is passed on through the food to you, a blessing you can’t get from restaurant food.
It's a great topic that you chose Nick. It is India's totally indigenous six sigma certified delivery system. There is no management school worth its salt in India that doesn't teach about the Mumbai Dabbawalas !
It's bcoz Indian food takes some time to cook and most of the employee goes early in the morning.they just finish some breakfast and rush to their work. You have to subscribe to them for their service.
This facility is only available in mumbai, so in other cities the lunch is delivered by some relative or someone else bcz you can't afford to have lunch at resturant or hotels everyday, and most importantly majority Indian housewife would love that there husband should get fresh lunch to eat bcz they are doing this hardwork for the family. I like it very much.
There is another aspect, the food is fresh usually. If you make it in the morning, let's say around 5am, because you leave around 6~6:30, have it around 13:00~14:00. That is 8~9 hours sitting in a dark, moist container. Than you keep that container closed for another 2~6 hours. Chances are mould will grow in that container pretty quickly no matter how well you clean it. If you bring that time down to 2~4 hours, that is still within the safe zone of eating. People in this part of the world like to have what American's refer to as a hot meal. We prefer 2~3 hot meals. Sandwich will be a snack or the last case option for a lunch, that is a cold meal. Sandwiches are often very expensive and not filling at all. For a 1/3~1/5 of the price you can make a much more filling home cooked meal. Plus in American culture people have a notion not to offend others with the scent of the food. That is why things like bread, sandwiches and other such things are preferred. If you ever try a hot meal from any country, the scent will roll around in the air, take cinnabon stands at malls. Some people make like it, others won't. So when you get home made lunches coming in, everyone has to put up with it.
let me give you some inputs ,,These Dabbawalas charge minimum amount everymonth , all equally distributed.The lady at home is vv busy in the morning to cook food, with everyone having Breakfast childrens going to school etc, Indian food is not cold foods like sandwiches used often by children but daddy needs fresh and warm and tasty food often Chappatis ,rice daal ,curry chutney yoghurt etc and also a slice of mango or other fruits,hope you understand better now .
Keep in mind that, as cool a system as it is, it only services about 200,000 people out of 1,340,000,000 Indians. Mumbai alone has a population of 18,400,000. So it isn't like a major cultural event. Everyone else usually relies on the street stalls or small hotels (pronounced "ho-tull"), which in India usually means restaurant. The food is tasty, hot, cheap, and quick. Some few might carry their lunch with them, but since lunch isn't usually until one pm or later, it has to be something non-perishable in the hot Indian weather. I remember carrying my lunch to school as a kid.
1. This gives the lunch maker space to do other stuff like taking care of children getting them ready for school and dropping them and other stuff. Women don't have to cook food for lunch in the morning. 2. Secondly because of the Mumbai rush be it any medium of transport usually the travel time is more than hours sometimes(Watch Mumbai local trains videos in rush hours it's crazy). 3. It's now a matter of identity this system is nowhere active in the world. And the dabbawala are the part of the identity of Mumbai as you saw in a city of 1.8 Million only 200,000 people get their lunches through this medium.
I hope this idea takes over in other countries too. My dads meals consist of roti and some odd combination like fruit juice instead of proper meals during office day and he prefers to eat with labourers in Middle East as their food is closest to what he is used to and he likes them more than snobby people in other places.
Pickup is grouped by areas of the city. Then its sorted and sent to areas where offices are grouped by area. Much like how mail works. You subscribe to it monthly and its crazy cheap, around $10 to $15 per month.
Few reasons- 1.People leave early for work and some work shifts..so to have a full meal prepared early is difficult. 2.They travel long distances ,so lugging the lunchbox is difficult. 3.Typically lunch is prepared at home by 9.00-10.00am for the whole family..so only then it is ready,hence the dabbawalas. 4.People avoid eating out regularly due to mutiple reasons like , quality of food,choice of food, availability,lack of wholesome food and also finances,besides health..hence the dabbawalas are a nice fit to the mumbai lifestyle. Lastly, lunches are not just PBJ sandwiches. A homecooked lunchbox carries approx 4 items. Rice,Roti,Veggie/non veg curry and lentils( dal) .. sometimes a dessert too .
If you carry your lunch you have to carry it in the morning which is cooked before your leave. but the Dabbawala delivers the food cooked at your home later (almost at noon ) And take your lunch box back to home, so you get fresh food .. Dabbawala organization charges between 7-15 USD monthly from you.. they pay their stuff from the business.
There are a few points where the dabbawalas meet to exchange the lunchbox according to the place where they need to be delivered bcz its not possible that all the lunchboxes for a specific delivery comes from the same area
Many people use the dabbawalas in Mumbai but most people don't. I would say about 100,000 -200,000 people use it in Mumbai, in a city of 22 million people. I don't know much about it other than that and I don't know any people who use the system, its pretty common to spot dabbawalas though. I'm absolutely sure where my mother works, atleast 2000 people in their building, not even one person uses the service. Its just a fascinating system and people will go gaga while telling you about it but the majority just carry their own lunches or depend on street food/restaurant food or similarly to US, people may also order food. Uber eats and other food delivery apps are very common but the delivery time in India is less compared to US(I live in US so I have experienced both situations).
i feel sad right now because due to the pandemic many of the dabbawalas havent been earning....i guess they could be classified as gig workers and due to pandemic and lockdown their service has halted in Mumbai....i recently read an article on how the lockdown has affected them and how hard they are struggling right now....if anyone reads this please go online and help them...there are tons of NGOs you can donate to help them
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are not lunches in India. Lunch will be typically Roti, Rice, Daal, two vegetable masala, curd etc. This cannot be made within 7:30am in the morning, that's the time most Mumbaikars leave for work. The travelling distance on an average is around 1hr by local train. Office typically starts 9am.
Too much of a burden for a person to cook both breakfast and lunch in the morning. Breakfast in India is not bread butter jam. Takes time to cook. If both are working, then taking lunch with you is best option. Not all companies or schools have cafeteria. Lunch boxes are not only for offices, most of them are for kids at school. 90% -95% Indian schools don't have kitchen or cafeteria to serve lunches to students.
I mean yes, if you going to have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, yes you can bring it with you. Majority of indians dont eat that for their lunch. Its a proper indian meal, and like any other big cities if your work starts at 8 or 9 am you leave your house around 6. To make full meal you wouldve to get up at 4. Which you just cant do. So either your mom, wife or cook makes your lunch later in morning and it gets delivered to your before lunch time.
There are several reasons for rich people would use this One of the biggest is to receive hot and fresh food from your own home. There are so many different religions and castes in India that people feel more comfortable in eating their home cook food also it is supercheap to get this service and this has been going on for a long long time before all the Uber eats and menu log deliverers That are are available now call and in general Indians consider home-cooked food to be much more healthier as compare to restaurants call made to use substandard materials and it is believed in India that if you eat from restaurants all the timeIt is not good for your health call service does make a lot of sense but the most interesting part is it is only available in Mumbai nowhere else in the whole country
Indians prefer to eat fresh home cooked meals as compared to here in America where canned, frozen microwavable food is the king or alternatively getting food from outside. If Americans pay a little more attention to what and how they eat, they can remove a huge strain off their health care system. However it is easy said than done. Being in a capitalistic society where greed drives everything, even farmers use chemicals to grow food. Organic is more expensive and the pricing structure is designed to keep you sick. Only here you would find an apple more expensive than a bag of fries.
