From All Things Considered in 1998:

http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/segment_display.cfm?segID=34391

I remember this as being an intriguing story!

Edited by author 09-26-2002 02:02 PM
Interesting - NPR claims that:

"The job doesn't pay much; the hours are long, the working conditions tough, but for village men living south of the city, it's often the only work available."

While the Yahoo article states:

"The charge for this extraordinary service is just Rs.150 per month, enough for the dabba wallahs, who are mostly self-employed, to make a good living.

"After paying for the crate and the railway for transport, the average dabba wallah takes home anywhere between Rs.5,000 and 6,000 per month," said Medge."

Did dubba wallah pay jump or cost of living decrease in the four years between the articles? Or is there a bias in reporting going on here...?

JSE

This is cool. I just finished reading this article by Tom DeMarco on the parallels between the box-wallah system and the architecture of complex software sysytems:

<http://www.systemsguild.com/GuildSite/TDM/Architecture.html>;

Cheers, Ralph

Dead Media entry on dabba wallahs:

http://www.deadmedia.org/notes/35/359.html

"Dabba wallah" sounds like a rejected Fred Flintstone signature howl.

Shades of "Midnight's Children" and "The Satanic Verses." Great stuff.

Ralph - thank you! You have justified my reading of BoingBoing at work. (I always figured it would pay off,
but this proves it.)

Also - the link you gave is correct, but QuickTopic munges it when you add the angle brackets. This one...

http://www.systemsguild.com/GuildSite/TDM/Architecture.html

...should work with a single click.