westland ltd
Mumbais Dabbawala
Shobha Bondre is a celebrated and much-published Marathi 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, Loksatta, Lokprabha, Maher and Kirloskar . She has also written dialogues for many popular Marathi TV serials like Abhalmaya, Manasi, Oon Paaus and Ardhangini .
In the last few years, profiling people from various walks of life has become Shobhas 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 .
Mumbais Dabbawala
The Uncommon Story of the Common Man
Shobha Bondre
Translated from Marathi by
Shalaka Walimbe
westland ltd
61, Silverline, Alapakkam Main Road, Maduravoyal, Chennai 600 095
No. 38/10 (New No. 5), Raghava Nagar, New Timber Yard Layout, Bengaluru 560 026
93, 1st Floor, Sham Lal Road, New Delhi 110 002
First published in India by OMO Books, Pune 2011
This edition published in India by westland ltd 2013
First e-book edition: 2014
Copyright Shobha Bondre 2013
Translation copyright Shobha Bondre 2011
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-93-82618-23-2
Typeset in Adobe Garamond by SRYA, New Delhi
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, circulated, and no reproduction in any form, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews) may be made without written permission of the publishers.
Contents
London Beckons
As per my daily routine I reached our office in Dadar on that particular day and almost immediately got buried in work. While I was talking to some people, the mobile rang. I took the call. The caller was none other than Mr Jitendra Jain from the British Deputy High CommissionMumbai.
Good morning.
How are you?
Fine, thank you.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Mr Jain got down to businessHow many of the dabbawalas have valid passports ready?
Three of us, Mr Gangaram Talekar, Mr Sopanrao Mare and I. Anything in particular? I enquired.
Yes, absolutely, get ready and pack your bags, you are to attend a wedding in London. HRH the Prince of Wales has sent the dabbawalas an invitation. He has requested that two people from your organisation be present for the wedding. You must decide who will attend this function.
It was a bolt out of the blue. Just to double-check, I glanced upon the calendar. It was Friday, the 1st of April 2005. Considering the fact that it was April Fools Day, I promptly asked Mr Jain, whether he was pulling a fast one on me. He had the heartiest laugh I have ever heard and replied, No, no, of course not. If you come by to my office I can show you the invitation letter.
Later in the day, I reached the office of the British Deputy High Commission and saw the invitation for myself. My heart had never experienced such great joy and pride. It was too good to be true that out of the billion citizens staying in our countryIndia, two dabbawalas had been accorded the privilege of receiving a special invitation to attend the royal wedding in London!
This recognition and honour was conferred not only on two individuals but more importantly on two dabbawalas of Mumbai. Therefore, it was with great pride that Sopanrao Mare and I, Raghunath Medge, accepted the invitation on behalf of our fraternity of almost five thousand dabbawalas. But in spite of the magnitude of it all, we remained firmly rooted to the ground.
From that moment onwards we had loads to do. The bridegroom was probably taking it easy in his hometown but we were constantly on the move here.
Needless to say, we are accustomed to the daily rat race. My day starts very early in the morning. From home, I head straight to our office in Dadar, then to the Grant Road office, followed by a quick round at Churchgate station and then off to the Cooperative Credit Society office in Andheri. To add to this hectic everyday routine, there were now visits to the British Deputy High Commission, the Air India office, Hotel Tajmahal and several other such places.
We had received the invitation on 1st and the marriage ceremony was scheduled for 8 April. That in effect gave us only six days in hand for preparation. We were worried whether we would be able to manage everything on time but then there is always a ray of hope in such times.
To be extremely honest, we are a bunch of simple, traditional and superstitious people. Earlier, when we had learnt that Prince Charles would be taking his marriage vows on 8 April, a no-moons day, we were very upset as no-moons day is considered inauspicious by Hindus. Unknown to the world, we dabbawalas had organised a pooja and a special sacrificial ceremony on 13 March at the Sanyas Ashram Temple in Mumbai in order to appease the stars and ward off the evil. We had pleaded with the Almighty, Lord, though it is the no-moons day may the Princes wedding be celebrated without any obstacle.
The unprecedented death of Pope John Paul II, led to the wedding being postponed by a day as Prince Charles decided to go to Vatican to pay his last respects.
The last-minute postponement gave us one more day in hand for preparation and above all brought with it a sense of relief as the marriage would now be solemnised on the auspicious day of the Hindu New Year. The Lord seemed to have answered our prayers. Reassured by the change in date, we continued with our pre-departure preparations.
The news about the invitation to the royal wedding spread like fire and all the bigwigs in town got their act together. Air India informed us that they would take care of our air tickets. Representatives from Hotel Tajmahal added, You must stay in Hotel Tajmahal London. From the time you land in London up to your departure, you shall be our guests. It was truly overwhelming.
It all seemed like a dream, our passports and visas were ready and just when we thought nothing could go wrong, out of the blue we received a call from Air India office, Your tickets are ready. However, when you come to collect them, you will have to make a payment of Rs 9,200 as taxes. As per our rules we can offer you the tickets but cannot waive off the taxes. This really put us in a fix. Just as Air India had a set of rules, we dabbawalas too followed certain strict rules.
