JOIN USThousands of office-goers in Mumbai will have to patronise the restaurants or lug their tiffin boxes themselves in the first week of April, as Mumbai's famed dabbawalas would be taking their annual leave.
The tiffin service will remain closed from April 1 to 6.
Dabbawalas -- tiffin carriers -- go on leave for a week in April every year. Most of them visit their native places in Pune and Ahmednagar districts of western Maharashtra during this period.
They belong to the Warkari sect. Most of them hail from towns of Mulshi, Mawal, Rajgurunagar, Ambegaon and Junnar in Pune district and Akola, Sangamner in Ahmednagar district.
"The service will remain suspended for a week and inconvenience caused to our patrons is very much regretted," said Subhash Talekar, spokesperson, Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust.
Close to 1.75 lakh dabbas are coded alphanumerically and delivered daily across Mumbai along the central, western and harbour railway lines by dabbawalas.
They operate so smoothly that their system of working has been studied in renowned management schools.