The Dabbawallas of Mumbai

When I wrote about minimum wages and productivity, I could not help but recall a news reporting that I had stumbled across. The Dabbawallas story, was, still is a chronicle of achievement, and I was utterly impressed by their commitment, discipline and teamwork. They received a Six Sigma Performance rating of 99.9999%, or having only one error in 6 millions deliveries.

Six Sigma is a performance measurement strategy. It is an methodology that works on elimination of errors for better efficiency.

From the suburban homes, where the food is being prepared and delivered to the offices of Mumbai (Bombay) Dabbawallas work together as a team to bring food to the masses of office workers. Dabba meaning lunch box, and Walla meaning man.

What started out as a simple delivery service for catered food more than 100 years ago, is now a world renowned.

These very special, Dabbawallas, or lunchbox man started the day filling up their Tiffin carriers with the food ordered in the suburbs, identifying each customer by simple colour and codes. These tiffin carriers are then transported by bikes, rail, motocycles and finally delivered to the lunch recipients in their offices.

Each working day, 5000 Dabbawallas deliver 200,000 home make meals for less than $10 a month. They first leave the homes where these lunch meals are prepared heading toward the first railway station. They were then sorted at the railway station and boarded onto the luggage carriage. The 3^rd Dabbawalla will travel with these lunches to their nearest destination. These lunches were then picked up and delivered by another Dabbawalla and delivered to their various destinations. The empty lunch boxes are then returned to their original location in the evening in a reversal of the earlier journey. Each Dabbawallas travel approximately 70 miles each day.

Food for lunch anyone? Food for thought too for Malaysians to get ‘unstuck in the middle,’ and strive to become a high income economy.

Watch a Business Lesson by cbsnews.com on Dabbswallas, the Indian Lunch Carriers on youtube, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxfHB5wPWeQ

So Sad for The Little Birds (Yellow-vented Bulbul)

It is sad that the elements sometimes create havoc and parents have to do what they can to survive. I had on two occasions unluckily experienced the abandonment of two Yellow-vented Bulbuls nests, although under circumstances that the parent birds deemed risky and even life threatening.

These Yellow-vented Bulbuls (Pycnonotus goiavier, Merbah Kapur (Malay),

are a familiar sight in Malaysian gardens. They feed on fruit, berries, sucks nectar and insects. They thrive well in our current day small garden home environment.

The first nest was built by the parent Bulbuls, about 2 feet from my exercise bicycle among one of my potted Red Palm leaves, under the awnings, well camouflaged.     

I tried not to exercise anymore and make way for these feathered parents. Alas, that was not enough as the nest was also only about 5 feet from my front door. I noticed that the parents have not been coming to the nests anymore although I hope they would. Unfortunately, one rainy night some night predator consumed the 2 small eggs.

The second nest was built also about 2 feet from my exercise bicycle. We tried our best to stay away from our bamboo plant where they built their nests and the bird lay only one egg. Peeping from my curtained windows, I saw the parents incubate and kept the eggs warm for a couple of days. But alas, it must be the noise or the traffic flows through my front door, the parent birds decided not to take the risk and left, maybe to build another nest at a better location.

Yellow-vented Bulbuls’ nests are deep, cup-shaped nests that open skyward. That could explain why they have been trying to find a safe haven for their nests as the thunderstorms that we have been experiencing of late have been very heavy and unpredictable, that could easily ravaged a skyward nest. These birds build their nests with whatever that they find around the garden carrying strip by strip of different types of leaves, grass and even small twigs. They particularly like palm leaves, maybe because of its tensile strength and the availability of these lofty leaves from my garden. These birds, cleverly wove the nest, making sure the inner side is well lined, soft and comfortable for their young ones.

I tried to get some pictures of the adult Yellow-vented Bulbuls, but they are quick to take to the air as soon as you get to about 15 feet near them. The pictures are not very good with my camera from such a distance, but good enough for anyone looking at them to be able to identify them.

 

 

Compare with the other photos to see if you can identify the location of the nest in this picture.

A female resting on my neighbour's rambutan tree. No, it might be a male.

This is a better picture, isn't it? You can at least see the colour of its plumage.

If you like to find out more on the various species of Bulbuls found in Malaysia, kindly click on the link. http://www.malaysianbirds.com/bird-family/bulbul.htm