A dabbawala; also spelled as dabbawalla or dabbawallah; literally meaning ("person with a box"), is a person in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, most commonly found in the city of Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

, who is employed in a unique service industry whose primary business is collecting the freshly cooked food in lunch boxes

Tiffin carrier

Tiffin carriers or dabbas are a kind of lunch box used widely in India for tiffin meals. They were also used in Singapore and Malaysia during the 1950s-60s, and were known as tingkat. Normally they come in two to three tiers. Tiffin carriers are opened by unlocking a small catch on either side of...

 from the residences of the office workers (mostly in the suburbs), delivering it to their respective workplaces and returning the empty boxes back to the customer's residence by using various modes of transport.