As King Charles III is coronated on Saturday in London with the famed 362-year-old solid gold 'St. Edwards Crown', another traditional headgear from his humble admirers in Mumbai will vie for attention in the glitter and glamour of the 'Crown .
NEW DELHI: For decades they delivered lunch across Mumbai as part of a 130-year-old network, earning themselves the moniker dabbawalas, or the “ones who carry a box.”
The delivery system was the primary source of income for 5,000 men who are mostly semi-literate and earned around 15,000 Indian rupees a month ($200) by lugging more than 200,000 lunch boxes across the city every day, irrespective of rain, thunder or riots.
But with India imposing a nationwide lockdown in March, the state government of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, was forced to shut down all public transport and essential services.
“For the first time in years, our life came to a standstill. We found ourselves helpless, and most of us retreated to our villages to eke out a living,” Vinod Shette, a 30-year-old father of two, told Arab News.