A meal pack or a dabba in colloquial terms is not new to the Puneites. Quality food, cooked with utmost care is provided in the form of Dabbas. A meal pack basically consists of chapatis, one or two vegetables, daal (which varies every day) salad, and sometimes dahi and a sweet dish. So you have a sumptuous meal for four people. A full dabba is priced around Rs 600 to 650 per month while a half dabba (which contains a lesser quantity of food) is priced around Rs 500 to 550 rupees per month. And if you urgently require a dabba, voila! All you have to do is dial a number, and the pack will be delivered at your doorstep without much fuss. Leaders in this field are women, mainly housewives, who find it to be an extremely lucrative vocation which they can conduct from home.

For Jaya, wife of a peon in a non govenmental organisation, financial constrains were becoming hard to cope up with. While her family grew, the earnings remained meagre." I started at a very small level, providing two to three dabbas every day.NowI have graduated to a level where I am earning a sizeable income, which has considerably raised the standard of living of my family." she says. Other such enterprising ladies have formed cooperatives which provide such services. When asked whether their vocation is considered to be dignified, the emphatic reply was,"as far as it is profitable, we don't care!"

Sushma, for instance worked as a housemaid till a year ago, when as a stroke of luck, her employer asked if she could supply meals to the bachelor next door. Since then Sushma has been earning good money out of her meal pack venture, providing fifteen to twenty packs per day.She is assisted by her husband and children who look after the transport and purchasing of raw material. Other women in this field have expanded their enterprise to taking orders for large functions like weddings.

But all is not a cake walk in the lives of these women. Very few of them are backed by their families. Though they earn a huge amount, sometimes even more than their husbands, they are not recognised as potential bread winners and have to work against all odds. Several bottlenecks like transport and purchases have to be dealt single handedly by them.

Says Sushma, ``initially my family was sceptical about this step, but later as money came trickling down my potential was realised.'' Today she can afford to buy most of the things which earlier she could not. Having bought a television, refrigerator and a bicycle for her son, she is now looking forward to shift into the new house which the couple is planning to build soon. With a telephone connection at home, taking orders for mealpacks has become much easier.

For those who consider cooking to be a woman's forte, Bhairappa Gowda may come as a jolt in the reverie! Bhairappa has been living with the Mehendales since he was ten years of age. The couple contributed the initial capital required to start his business of supplying dabbas. Today Bhairappa is famous for the wafer thin, soft chapatis which he enjoys making. He is helped by Sangeeta Mehendale in marketing and money management. A twist in the tale eh?

To put in a nutshell, this enterprise of supplying dabbas has proved to be immensely profitable. Those who took it up as a mere hobby to fill up their extra time have made it a serious profession. The dabba system is gaining popularity each day among Puneites, the city haing a large student population. Students like Antara and Japita, who stay in a hostel say " a dabba is both convenient and economical for us than the college mess". So next time you get cooking blues, just give your nimble fingers some exercise, dial your nearest caterer's number, and have a feast!