Mumbai’s Dabbawalla: The Uncommon Story Of The Common Man

Mumlais Dobbawala is the uncommon story of a common man whose existence plays a crucial rote in making the wheels of India’s financial capital turn smoothly. They may be a tiny cog in the machine but the intrepid dabbawalas of Mumbai deliver 200,000 meals every day from homes to offices within three hours. Their clockwork precision and incredibly low error rate has got the world to sit up and take note of this awesome army of 5000 men, who make sure office-goers get a hot, home-cooked meal every day, come rain or shine. It is a stupendous feat of coordination, efficiency, honesty and sheer hard work that could teach many a corporate honcho a lesson or two in running a business successfully.

The story is narrated alternately by the man who has made it happen — Raghunath Medge, president of the Dabbawalas Association, and the author Shobha Bondre

Shobha Bondre is a celebrated and much-published Mararhi writer. She has been writing for the last 25 years and has published 15 books, many of them bestsellers that have gone into over 75 editions.

The non-Marathi reading world is now keen to read her works and her books are being translated into English, Hindi and Gujarati. She has written articles, short stories and columns for prestigious publications like Maharashtra Times, Loksana, Lokprabha, Maher and Kirloskar. She has also written dialogues for many popular Marathi TV serials like Abhalmaya, Manasi, Oon Paaus and 14rclhangini.

In the last few years, profiling people from various walks of life has become Shobha’s forte. For this, she interacts closely with her subjects, understanding them in their social, familial, emotional and economic settings.

She has won many literary awards for her work, including the Maharashtra State Award for Best Novel in 1997, for Saata Samudrapar.