A muggy monsoon dawn in Mumbai, and Bikaji is preparing for his morning rounds. Piled high onto his bike are colour-coded dabbas – the metal cannisters containing home cooked tiffin – the traditional lunch. While many people are barely finishing breakfast, he’s collecting lunches for desk bound workers. He is the nexus between home and office, husband and housewife, mother and son. An intricate delivery system ensures a 99.9% success rate, despite operating in one of the world’s most chaotic cities. But the future of the dabbawallahs is under a cloud as the burgeoning Indian middle class discovers the joys of fast food and women are more interested in employment than staying at home to cook for their husbands. Mumbai’s Hindu Nationalist leaders fear that the very fabric of Indian society is unravelling – that the sacred bond between man and wife may soon be broken: ”if my wife stops cooking, we will have nothing to talk about,” says Pramod Malwaka –Hindu party leader. Their city may be changing and demand dwindling, but the dabawallas believe their service will survive.

Produced by ABC Australia