As Mumbai's dabbawalas get ready to represent the Maharashtra state tableau at the upcoming Republic Day parade, FYI gets their President to chat about the symbol responsible for their 99.999% success rate the dabba code
As Mumbai's dabbawalas get ready to represent the Maharashtra state tableau at the upcoming Republic Day parade, FYI gets their President to chat about the symbol responsible for their 99.999% success rate the dabba code
Raghunath Medge is tough to pin down. Even for the press. It took us six days and several phone calls to set up an appointment with the President of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust.
This January 26, the 113 year-old organisation will hold Maharashtra's flag high at India's Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. An 11-member dabbawala team is already in the capital rehearsing for the big day.
Their tableau, designed by students of Sir JJ School of Art, showcases the dabba delivery system, from point to point, with bicycles and handcarts for props.
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"Mere ko naach-gaana nahin aata (No song and dance for me)," he smiles about staying out of the core team.
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President Raghunath Medgeu00a0and fellow dabbawalas salute their colleagues who will be in New Delhi for the Republic Day Parade this January 26. |
Medge might head a 5,000-strong workforce but has no qualms about being part of the daily grind, delivering several lunch tiffins himself.
"I am proud to be a dabbawalla," he announces, in a deep voice that compliments his towering self. The simplicity is unmistakable, however.
We are at Grant Road (W) railway station, seated on a platform bench. It's peak hour, and soon, a few of his colleagues join him, their faces lighting up at the slightest mention of the Delhi chapter.
Deciphering the codeFor them, time is money, and Medge wastes none of it in explaining the curious codes that continue to catch the fancy of most Mumbaikars and out-of-towners.
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The code has evolved with time, as we discover. He props up a few dabbas from the Grant Road batch on a bench, breaking down the unique alphanumeric coding system for us.
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"When our service began, in 1897, different coloured threads were tied to dabbas to denote villages across Mumbai.
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Later, when oil paint became available, coded symbols were painted on the tiffin cases.
By 1974, the third generation devised a coded system with numbers and letters. It was changed from Marathi to English for convenience," he explains.
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The six-sigma code is essentially a combination of three elements area code, dabbawala code and destination code.
How to crack the lunch Dabba Code16: Code of the Dabbawala who'll pick up tiffin at destination
JA: Destination addressu00a0- abbreviation of the building/ shop number
402: Final destinationu00a0- room/ flat number/ office name
K: The route taken by the delivery person (Dabbawala)
20: Destination station code (Grant Road in this case. each station has a unique number)
D: Resident station code (Dadar in this case. The starting letter of the area denotes this.)
Medge says every area is differentiated by a different colour code (red, blue, green, yellow and so on) for easier identification.
With over 2 lakh customers and 4.5 lakh tiffins that feed the city's hungry every day, it's no wonder that world leaders like Prince Charles and ex-American president Bill Clinton insisted on taking time off their busy schedules to meet these facilitators of Mumbai's lunchtime lifeline.
Session done, Medge takes our leave, his band of colleagues in tow walking towards one of their association's oldest offices outside the station.
The day's duties are only half done. It won't be long before they return to the platform to help in the second leg of the daily routine. After all, it's not easy to be your own competition on the punctuality chart.
| The Dabba Dossier |
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According to a 1998 Forbes magazine article,
1 mistake for every 8 million deliveries is the norm.
For the dabbawalas, wearing the Gandhi cap is compulsory and is used as a mark of identification at Mumbai's crowded railway stations.
When Prince Charles wanted to meet them,
they gave him a precise time slot so that thousands of Mumbaikars wouldn't
have to skip their lunch.
The dabbawalas are registered in Ripley's Believe It Or Not! and the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Harvard Business Review has published a case study on the dabbawalas, urging their students to learn from this organisation, running on human endeavour and zero technology. |
