200,000 Tiffin Boxes Delivered Per Day - Mumbai Dabbawala

India's most crowded city, Mumbai, has a unique take on boxed lunch.

Mumbai Dabbawala or Tiffin Wallahs: 200,000 Tiffin Boxes Delivered Per Day.
The famous Dabbawala or Tiffin Wallahs translates as one who carries the box. Tiffin is an old English word for a light lunch, and also the name of the multi-compartment metal lunch box that carries it. The Tiffin Wallah originated over a century ago when the many Indians working for British companies disliked the food served at work. Tiffin service was created to bring home cooking to the workplace. Today the city's 5,000 tiffin-wallahs deliver 200,000 tiffin-boxes filled with home-cooked food each day. 

The Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust better known as dabawallas.
This service was originated in 1880. In 1890, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche, started a lunch delivery service with about 100 men.[2]In 1930, he informally attempted to unionize the dabbawallas. Later a charitable trust was registered in 1956 under the name ofNutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust. The commercial arm of this trust was registered in 1968 as Mumbai Tiffin Box Supplier's Association. The present President of the association is Sopan Laxman Mare. Nowadays, the service often includes cooking of foods in addition to the delivery. 

According to a recent survey, there is only one mistake in every 16,000,000 deliveries and the system has registered a performance rating of 99.999999. 
Prince Charles is a fan and patron of the Tiffin Wallahs and countless businesses and corporations study the system to learn of its success and efficiency.


Guiness Book of World's Record - Most dabbawala tiffin crates carried on the head.

Most dabbawala tiffin crates carried on the head.

The most dabbawala tiffin crates carried on the head are 3 and were achieved by Prakash Baly Bachche (India) on the set of Guinness World Records - Ab India Todega in Mumbai, India, on 21 March 2011. in crates carried on the head.

One tiffin crate carried by one of the dabbawala's person

Water mill designed by an illiterate Farmer - Siddappa

Siddappa, an illiterate farmer from Somapur village in Gadag district of Karnataka, has designed a water mill to generate electricity. Right from conceptualizing to materialisation, the farmer has done everything on his own. He operates the water mill in the canal near his house.

Using timbers, Siddappa prepared a giant wheel that joined at a central hub. There are eight arms, five feet each, extending from the central hub. A plastic bucket is dangled at the tip of each arm. When the water from two pipes gushes into one of the buckets, it generates the pressure that turns the 10-feet wheel in an anti-clockwise motion. The bucket could also be spun in the horizontal plane using a central steering wheel, similar to a teacup ride. As one after another bucket is driven by the flowing water, the first arm declines back to the ground while the other rises in the air. This process spins the black wheel attached to this giant wheel. The spinning black wheel rotates another wheel connected to a dynamo.

(He used eight plastic containers, a wooden pole, and waste spare parts, from agriculture equipment like harvesting machine, and tractors to prepare the structure. A dynamo is used, to convert the energy from the force of the water into electrical energy. He claims that he can run at least three bulbs of 25 watts, round the clock.)

A converter converts the Direct Current from the dynamo into Alternating Current through a battery and inverter, which help operate television, radio, and fan in his house inside an agricultural field. Siddappa claims to have spent a mere Rs 5000 on building the entire apparatus. This is his second attempt to show the villagers that anybody can produce electricity for self-consumption using the resources at hand. “Many people who have canals flowing near their villages don’t know how to use that natural gift. I want to show them all practically that electricity problems can be solved by being creative. There is no need to beg to the government for everything,” he says.

He is also planning to lift water from the nearby Malaprabha River through the pump set, utilising the power generated. Siddappa stays in his 16-acre agriculture land, along with his wife, three sons and a daughter. Siddappa also supplies power to his brother’s house situated in the same farm.

His creative work has paid dividends, as the children have access to electricity round-the-clock for studies. He has already received widespread appreciation for generating wind power, through an axle fitted with iron sheets.

“We lived without power supply on our farm for more than 20 years. Now, we have our own power through wind and waste water,” he said.

He gets 150 watts of power from this water mill when water flows in the canal. Siddappa claims he can create electricity for the entire village through his machine. But the problem is that the canal in his village flows only for three months a year!

First Plastic Surgery n Cataract surgery - in India

Sushruta

Plastic Surgery – was first performed in India around 2000 BC and then popularized in the Arab world that actually launched it to Europe. The person behind this groundbreaking medical practice in India was Sushruta. He is credited for performing the first rhinoplasty (nose-job) with a unique understanding of the circulation system.

Cataract surgery - Cataract surgery was also known to the him (Indian physician Sushruta) in 6th century BCE. In India, cataract surgery was performed with a special tool called the Jabamukhi Salaka, a curved needle used to loosen the lens and push the cataract out of the field of vision. The eye would later be soaked with warm butter and then bandaged. Though this method was successful, Susruta cautioned that cataract surgery should only be performed when absolutely necessary. Greek philosophers and scientists traveled to India where these surgeries were performed by physicians. The removal of cataract by surgery was also introduced into China from India.


Stones - The earliest operation for removal of a stone is also given in the Sushruta Samhita (6th century BCE). The operation involved exposure and going up through the floor of the bladder.

 Because of his seminal and numerous contributions to the science and art of surgery he is also known by the title "Father of Surgery." Much of what is known about this inventive surgeon is contained in a series of volumes he authored, which are collectively known as the Sushruta Samhita  in which he describes over 300 surgical procedures and 120 surgical instruments and classifies human surgery in 8 categories. He lived, taught and practiced his art on the banks of the Ganges in the area that corresponds to the present day city of Varanasi in North India.

Sushruta Statue in Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar

Bangles - Indian Discovery

Bangles or Churi are traditional ornaments worn by Indian women, especially Hindus. They are worn after marriage to signify matrimony. It is tradition that the bride will try to wear as many small glass bangles as possible at her wedding and the honeymoon will end when the last bangle breaks.

Rajasthani traditional Bangles

Some men wear a single bangle on the arm or wrist called as kada or kara. In Sikhism, The father of a Sikh bride will give the groom a gold ring, a kara (steel or iron bangle), and a mohra. Chooda is a kind of bangle that is worn by Punjabi women on her wedding day. It is a set of white and red bangles with stone work.

Kada

Chooda

Glass bangles are mostly produced in the old Indian city of Firozabad in North India. Hyderabad also has a historic market for bangles named the Laad Bazaar.