The Retreat of a Moveable Feast

The iconic dabbawalas of Mumbai, who brought lunch on time, now have time running out on them. Feted globally as masters of logistics, they have a tough delivery to make: a future for themselves in a post-Covid world ruled by food delivery apps

- DHAVAL S. KULKARNI

IF a city was a novel, this could be it: a piece of magic realism coming out of a lunch box. Think of it as a simple narrative device that holds within itself the Mumbai story. The biography of faceless millions who make up its brick and mortar, its moving human architecture, and innate genius. With a humble task and a name like 'the dabbawalas', a decidedly dowdy one that refuses any stylistic gloss, you would imagine the associated cast of characters to be lost in the heaving blur of humanity that made up the unchic suburbs, fading out to the vast and rough-hewn ruralia beyond. Sweat, grime, toil...and suburban trains packed like sardines. But then, you see them rub shoulders with the beau monde at Windsor Guildhall, when Prince Charles married Camilla ParkerBowles. You see the swashbuckling knight of aviation, Sir Richard Branson, moving in their midst on terra firma. Not breaking bread, but delivering bread-in unfashionable aluminium and steel dabbas. But is that chapter of the novel coming to a close? Is lunch time over?