Rediscovering our privilege- The Lunch "from home"- 3 min read

Food is fuel and more. Quite literally and while there are many things that make for a good or bad day at work we always want our lunch to our liking. Its one of the few “controllables”. And that makes us feel good on an otherwise busy day. In fact, lunch or the“tiffin” makes us feel a sense of “divine contentment”-and its very well timed as well! But first a little bit about the evolution of lunch at work (History is one of the vital windows to understand the present after all!)

?????????????As it would the concept of lunch at work started much before the “corporate world” even saw its origins. It all started with the British. When the British came to India in the 18th century, the colonial sahibs (masters) had to adjust to our hot and humid weather. They resorted to skipping a heavy lunch and siesta and instead it was “tiff”- a tot of diluted liquor, and "tiffing" refers to taking a sip of this liquor (perhaps a hint that a sahib's lunch might quite often be of the liquid variety!). Soon Tiffin (lunchbox) took off as a term standing for any culinary indulgence between breakfast and dinner.

From these origins in British India – to today where the “tiffin” has evolved to create a fascinating world of its own, a world that involves a whole range of dishes, suppliers, from the dabbawalas wallahs of Bombay to the sellers of masala tea and savoury snacks catering to our busy on-the-go colleagues

Every weekday without fail something rather extraordinary is to be seen around midday on the chaotic streets of Bombay (or Mumbai). This is the sight of hundreds of stainless-steel tiered tiffin boxes or dabbas piled high on handcarts and bicycles being pushed through the streets by dhoti-wearing, white-capped tiffin wallahs! And how did the concept of Dabbawalas start?

Well, as the Indian city of Mumbai developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, a conundrum arose among the workforce. Workers in the bustling city left their homes very early and took a long commute to their workplace, leaving too little time to prepare a full lunch for them. So, a man named Mahadeo Havaji Bachche made his own lunch delivery service, employing 100 delivery men to bring lunches packed in tiffin boxes from home kitchens to workers spread out across the city. Bachche’s system quickly gained popularity, as it allowed workers on their lunch breaks to savor home- made,healthy food that is cheaper too.

Let’s picture this, a piping hot meal is cooked by a loved one or a helper at home, packed and ready to go at a certain time in the morning, Our dabbawala?- picks it up from the doorstep and carries it to a congregation point mid-way. Here the?dabba?is the given to the next?dabbawala?who then delivers it to your office. This process is way more elaborate than it sounds, because moving through the morning traffic, transferring dabbas (without spillage) through many levels of transit including the local trains with precision timing, and braving the harsh Mumbai rain & humid weather on a regular basis is an award worthy task in itself. However, Covid-19 changed the 100+ year legacy for this internationally acclaimed group of dabbawalas forever?

In Covid 19-We pulled back into our homes & our work became hybrid even post pandemic. Service apps like Zomato and Swiggy started providing many lunch alternatives. Now, the dabbawalas community shrunk drastically ( exact numbers not known but it was 5000 dabbawalas pre-pandemic) as people opted for different kinds of food delivery services. While some dabbawalas (who?were primarily farmers) have gone back to working on fields, many non-farmers now are trying to join the conventional services like Zomato, Swiggy for a living wage

This article hopes to revive the pleasure of having a dabbawalla bring you your very own mid-day meal. Dabbawalas are a 100 year old case study in efficiency, humility, care, kaizen and this TED-Talk group conducts seminars and workshops in the corporate world on learnings valuable for us in business. With an even simplified registration process, I forsee a lot more colleagues switching to them with stronger word-of-mouth from the current 2L customers base amongst us. So today as you sit for lunch, Think about how “special” a tiffin really is for you...

...A wholesome meal cooked only for you carried with a lot of care by two-three dabbawalas who never go wrong any day (almost never with a 99.9% accuracy and punctuality) and above all- nothing can beat the sweet sense of anticipation while we ponder “what’s for lunch today?” (aaj khane mein kya hai?)” while unpacking!

Bon-Appetit!