The Dabbawala

How does a crew of 5,000 deliver over 200,000 lunch boxes from homes to offices and back in a day, with only one mistake in every six million deliveries? Manish Tripathi, Chairman and Patron of the Dabbawala Foundation, who was in Kuala Lumpur recently, shares crucial insights into the 120-year legacy of the dabbawalas and how he plans to improve on an already sustainable operation. Manish Tripathi, in his white Gandhi cap and distinctive white uniform, has a quiet demeanour and is an all-round humble man.

He’s baffled by why people think it’s all right to leave their lights switched on in their hotel rooms when they exit, after having been told to do the same. “I was really surprised; it’s such a waste of electricity,” he says. Despite being jetted the world over to deliver talks on the dabbawala system to the business schools of Harvard, Wharton and Stanford as well as Fortune 500 corporations, Manish retains this touch of humility, a demeanour which may very well have been shaped by his one-and-a-half-year stint as a dabbawala himself.

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