Nissan races against Dabbawalas

Here's a team that will grab eyeballs and get your pulse racing -- fast bowler Zaheer Khan, Nissan Sunny, and motoring journalist Jonny Smith. While this sounds like a daunting team, the notion grows weak when one learns that it has set out to compete with the legendary dabbawalas of Mumbai.

Automaker Nissan has thrown itself a challenge to race against the dabbawalas of Mumbai to deliver the ICC T20 trophy to a South Mumbai school faster than the dabbawalas' tiffins reach their destination.

The dabbawalas will, as usual, take the Mumbai local, while Khan and Smith will have to wade through the streets of one of the busiest cities in India in a Nissan Sunny. Smith, a stranger to the city of Mumbai, will have 'local boy' Khan assist him through the challenge. And, automotive expert David Parkinson will be on the side of the dabbawalas.

Delivering two lakh 'dabbas' (tiffins) across one of the busiest cities in India every day is no mean feat, but the dabbawalas have been doing so for nearly 125 years now, with the kind of precision and punctuality, for which they were recognised as delivering six sigma level of accuracy. That means a chance of making just one mistake in six million!

Will Nissan be able to beat a competitor so formidable? Will sports teacher Shashi from the Mumbai school where the ICC T20 Trophy is to be delivered be able to show it to his cricket class in time? Well, the challenge is yet to be executed, so let's wait and watch...