India's pandemic-hit lunchbox men battle food delivery start-ups

Mumbai's famed cycle-borne tiffin delivery men like Pandurang Jadhav still cycle to make a food delivery in Mumbai. — AFP

After the pandemic shut offices and put Mumbai's renowned lunchbox deliverymen out of work, the 130-year-old "dabbawala" network has tied up with a trendy restaurant chain to take on India's billion-dollar start-ups.

For two decades, neither terror attacks nor monsoon deluges could stop Kailash Shinde from delivering hot lunches to Mumbai office workers, until lockdowns put the father-of-two on a forced hiatus for a whole year.