MumbaiÕs tiffin carriers have chipped in to buy Prince Charles and his wife-to-be Camilla Parker-Bowles traditional Indian wedding attire.
Together they are each pooling about two-thirds of their monthly wages to buy a traditional Indian headdress for Prince Charles and a sari, blouse and bangles for Camilla for their 8 April wedding.
They have been waiting for an occasion repay Prince CharlesÕ kindness after he publicly praised the Mumbai during a visit to India two years ago.
The tiffin carriers say that they can never forget their meeting with the Prince of Wales.
ÔIt was because of his visit that people around the world came to know about our work. For the first time in our 114-year history, our achievements were noticed,Õ says Raghunath Medge, chief of the tiffin carriers association.
ÔPrince Charles gave us so much importance. He chose to meet us instead of the high profile people.Õ
Mumbai has an estimated 5,000 tiffin carriers - locally known as dabbawallahs - who deliver about 175,000 lunch boxes daily in a century-old tradition.
ÔTiffinÕ is an old English word meaning midday snack.
The dabbawallahs collect lunch boxes from the suburban homes of nearly 200,000 customers and deliver them at their offices and factories at lunchtime.
Forbes magazine recently gave them a rating of 99.99% for precision and accuracy for their ability to almost unfailingly get the job done.
Their punctuality has awed management experts from around the world.
The vocation of supplying tiffin in Mumbai began in 1890, when the British and Parsi communities in the city needed convenience lunches.
Andrew Zilouf
Prince Charles to get Tiffin Gift
The famous lunch-box carriers of Mumbai are to honour Prince Charles for putting them on the map with a special wedding present.
