Tiffinwalas: Mumbai's pride and joy

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">Mumbaikars are often targeted by people of other cities for their jet-set lifestyle. Mumbaikars, however, not only take pride in it, but also try to maintain the two Ps they hold so dear - punctuality and precision. <br /><br />These traits of the city''s life have percolated to even the smallest service provider in the metro.And has been recognised now by none other than the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Forbes </span>magazine. The magazine carried a story on the famous tiffinwalas of Mumbai, describing them as "Indian efficiency at its best". <br /><br />And these service providers, numbering around 5,000 and their bosses, are neither IIT-ians nor MBAs, not even simple management diploma-holders. Many of them are educated just up to school level and come from various parts of Maharashtra, mostly villages and small towns.<br /><br />The tiffinwalas is an old institution. According to <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Forbes</span>, everyday they collect some 1.75 lakh tiffins from homes and deliver them to offices and schools before lunchtime and then collect them again after lunch hours to deliver them back to homes.<br /><br />Many Mumbaikars prefer this service as they do not have to carry tiffin boxes with them in crowded local trains or buses. Since the tiffins are collected from homes much after people leave for work, housewives have enough time to prepare the meals. As the food comes in typical ''three-tier'' tiffin, the office-goers get to enjoy a comparatively fresh and sumptuous meal.<br /><br />When the tiffins are ferried in trains all boxes look alike as every subscriber to the service has to buy tiffin boxes of the same size and height. However, the tiffinwalas mark each box with secret codes, undecipherable to a common man. With the help of these markings they make precise deliveries. Forbes quoted them as claiming that a mistake occurs only once in two months.<br /><br />Hats off to these men, who now have been internationally recognised. As a famous quotation goes, "Our lives are not in the lap of the gods, but in the lap of our cooks," Mumbaikars can claim after the cooks, their lives are in safe hands of the tiffinwalas.<br /><br />After talking about food the next thing that comes to mind is water. But Mumbaikars have now given up drinking water straight from the tap after reports of contaminated and unpotable water being supplied by the Municipal Corporation in parts of Mumbai. <br /><br />Mumbai Municipal Corporation has world-class water purification and treatment plant at Bhandup and it boasts of supplying clean water to the citizen. But this claim of the BMC being best services provider is fading away fast. It collects huge amount of taxes from the citizens but when it comes to providing service it does not feel any responsibility.<br /><br />Even if a hundredth of the precision and the urge to serve shown by tiffinwalas percolates down to many of our government, semi-government and civic organisations, Mumbai would be a much better place to live in. <br /><br />If the tiffinwalas make mistakes often, they will be completely wiped out. However, government employees have no such fear. Perform or not, they will safely hold their jobs permanently.<br /></div> </div>