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Lunch time. With long wooden crates on their heads, dabbawallahs, or lunch deliverers, manoeuvre through the bustle of Bombay. They deliver lunch to about 120,000 working men who, in accordance with an old caste-bound tradition only eat food prepared by their own wife. Using an ingenious network, the dabbawallahs collect the lunch boxes - the dabbas - from the wives and transport them by train and cart to a central location in the city. From there they are then distributed to each district and picked up again after lunch. Dabbawallahs portraits the dabbawallahs and the couples who use their services. This phenomenon is threatened with extinction now that more men eat what the local canteen staff prepare.

Credits

Set geluid
Production company
VPRO TV
TV company
VPRO TV

Title: Dabbawallahs
Year: 1998
Duration : 1 hour
Category: Short Documentary
Edition: NFF 1998

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