Their dusty white shirts, pyjamas and Gandhi topis (white Gandhi caps) put on like boy scouts, stand out in contrast to the colourfully dressed men, women, and children in cosmopolitan Mumbai. You find the dabawalas constantly racing forward in the marathon of trains, buses, cars, vans, trucks, three-wheeler autos, bicycles, cart pullers, pedestrians, ice carrying bullock carts, etc., where negligible discipline in lane crossing, overtaking, speed limit, and honking remains the order of the day.

It's a puzzle of sorts how they find space to move their carts to reach the Tiffin boxes unfailingly on time, day in day out, week after week, month after month, and year after year for the last 115 years through all seasons. Wow!

Anita Dalal (Anita), 40, a journalist and well-known business consultant is based in Mumbai. After working in a professionally reputed established business house and in a multinational consulting organization, Anita got interested in the innovative experiments in social engineering that are underway in various parts of India.

Anita has an excellent academic background. After getting a first class first in commerce from University of Bombay she obtained her masters in journalism from Syracuse University in US.

From her US contacts Anita gets an offer to search socially relevant and innovative business opportunity in the service sector in India. While sampling different ideas, her vigorous search leads her to meet Raghu and Ganga.

Our conversation Anita (A), Raghu (R), Ganga (G), and me (S) takes you through a simple business model that works on ground zero realities in this biggest megalopolis of Asia where a whopping population of 11 million lives! The dialogues are alive with wit and wisdom.

In this in-depth search Anita develops an entirely new perspective on management of change. She realises what it takes to nurture socially significant business in such cost escalating change.

You would see how creativity, wisdom, and guidance embedded in the value set of a society get translated into action in daily life.

Image: Members of the 'Boys of Brazil' (L,C,R) and 'Indian Dabbawalas' celebrate after a street football exibition match 'Defend Your Turf' organised by Nokia India in Mumbai last year.

Photograph: Sebastian D'Souza/AFP/Getty Images