Tiffinwala and Dibbawala as they are affectionately called by the Mumbaikars is the lifeline of service class or middle class Mumbaikars as per Behram ‘Busybee’ Contractor. This network of beating hunger of millions of Mumbaikars, Gujarati’s and workfolk in other Indian metros has been a tradition of Gowaals and Bharwaads since the past 120 years. But what when so many of them are outsourced to other places, well it is not that they are earning to splurge it on food and pile debt like the Americans on the credit card.
This is exactly what an article in the New York Times says. It elaborates about the system of food delivery in the US and gives an illustration of the backbone of the Indian mid-time meal makers, packers and deliverers, aptly called as Annadaata, based in San Francisco. Annadaata was invented out of the necessities of its executive director Mrs. Kavita Srivathsan:
I didn’t know how to cook, and the first two months after getting married my husband and I went out to eat all the time. Two months later our credit card bills were out of control and we were both gaining weight. At the end of the day I just wanted the basic Indian food I had grown up with.
This was it, with the recipes from her mother in south India and patient experimentation with Indian foods in her kitchen at San Jose she started her first pick with a $5 box meals ad at the website of justindia.com. Today she has a website of her own where the workers can view the menu and order their meals and pay online via their credit cards. Her menu caters to the South-Indian, Punjabi and Gujarati cuisine, these foods are cooked by a number of Indian chefs outsourced from India (in this case I would love using the word ‘Outsourced’) by Mrs. Srivathsan. The menu serves both vegetarian and non-vegetarian delicacies cooked with utmost care to bring the Indians out of the obesity fringe existing in the US. There are different order packages and payment options for you to choose. Apart from that it also caters to weekend lunch, corporate and party catering. The thalis are amazingly priced at $7 and $8 with a service tax of $1.
There is no difference between Tiffinwalas and Annadaatas as long as the guy on the receiving end does not see who is cooking the food. The testimonial of Indians working in the US shows that they do not miss home-cooked food. NY Times gives the testimonial of Mr. Desai who compares the restaurant food and the dibbawala food and says: There is minimal oil, and the different kinds of specialty food you get with Annadaata you would never ever find in a restaurant. NY Times also gives the description of other dibbawalas in the US, pointing out the fact that they are not registered like the Annadaata…but how does it matter until it is a matter of cooking from one’s own kitchen. More than being a meal provider it relates to a system started by the Indians to make meals delivery a hassle-free task, where you can enjoy the food that you want without thinking what, where, when and who of the food delivery network…what is wonderful is it makes India close to an Indian wherever he is. Aloha! Indian cuisine and Annadaata.
