Tanisha Singh needed tomatoes for her curry early one morning but local shops were closed. She ordered on a quick-delivery app and just eight minutes later, the tomatoes arrived. This is now common in Delhi and big Indian cities. Platforms like Blinkit, Swiggy, Instamart, and Zepto deliver groceries, drinks, and more within minutes from small nearby storage units called "dark stores." These stores are packed with essentials arranged for fast picking. A BBC visit to one such store showed workers rapidly packing orders in under a minute. Delivery rider Muhammad Faiyaz Alam drives 2.2 km, reaching customers in minutes despite tricky addresses. He earns around 31 rupees per delivery and tries to complete 40 orders daily, making roughly 900 to 1,000 rupees after expenses. Gig workers like Alam have no fixed salary or benefits, working long hours under pressure from app algorithms. Incentives push them to work fast, but risks like phone theft can erase earnings. Alam said, "I was sad for a few days, but what can I do? At least I got the standard pay." Speed is key, but leads to unsafe driving. Strikes over pay and conditions have pressured companies to stop promising "10-minute deliveries." The quick commerce boom grew after pandemic lockdowns as urban Indians traded time for convenience and some extra cost. Analyst Ankur Bisen notes, "Quick commerce has tapped into a huge pool of time-poor urban residents." Yet, profitability remains a challenge amid fierce competition and reliance on heavy discounts. For users like Singh, quick delivery is a habit now, although "we forget it is a rare privilege and that there is human labour behind it." A LocalCircles survey found 74% support dropping the "10-minute delivery" claim, and many are willing to wait longer. But for now, India’s fast cities keep moving on the backs of hard-working gig riders.