Trim Your Tiffin

Global kudos for Mumbai's dabbawalas came with Forbes magazine's 6 Sigma award, based on cent per cent accuracy on their 1.5 lakh daily tiffin deliveries. Celebrityhood came recently to Raghunath Medge after the invite to Charles-Camilla's nupitals. But what's less known is that Mumbai's 4,500 all-male club is joining hands with tiffinwalis. Not bais in nine-yard saris, but lithe ladies who lunch on salads 'n sprouts and supply healthy tiffins to celebrities, corporates, politicians and TV stars via the Mumbai Tiffin Trust Charity Association. These daily lunches cost between Rs 45 and Rs 100, based on the spartan or designer health quotient.

Every Monday to Friday, at 8 am, Arjun Sawant from Mumbai Tiffin lands up at Jigna Shah's kitchen outlet in Altamount Road, to collect 40 organic pure-veg dabbas. Each, tiered with low-oil theme meals like Goan red rice and potato vindaloo, South Indian avial and pongal, or Lebanese mezze and tabouli. By 11 am, Priti Shah's catering outlet in Worli is ready with 220 nutri-crammed tiffins of large salads, veg dishes and lite curries with roti. While dietician Sunali Parikh's Andheri kitchen sends out 1,000 rainbow meals, like beetroot roties, yellow kadi, green veggies for stars like Jassi (Mona Singh), Smriti Z. Irani and Simone Singh. With notes about client preferences and allergies, Jigna, sliding a colourful cascade of yellow corn and tri-pepper salad, white urad dal, green peas and red rice into a tiffin, says: "Research shows you need to eat 25 colours in your food each day. So the exotic veggies." And Medge is quite thrilled. "We do delivery service, increasing demand for more health food dabbas is what fills our stomachs." Long live this dabbawala-tiffinwali jodi