Driving back from down town Bangers to our little piece of suburbia, we pass an open space filled with billowing an drying washing. We are not talking a garden here but a couple of football pitches, a cricket ground, a couple of fields....big.
This is a home of one of Bangalore's traditional laundries or dhobi. It appears that not anyone can become a dhobiwalla. It is a position that is passed down from generation to generation and in Bangalore as in all big Indian cities there are some renowned dhobi families who have owned their business for generations.
Purander has obviously long decided some of my antics in India are a tad wierd but I think stopping in the heat of the day to take pictures of people doing their washing will need some beating!!
Essentially laundry is collected from hotels and big business round the city, washed, ironed folded and returned within the day. It is so hot at the moment in Bangers and monsoon has not struck so I imagine business must be booming as everything must dry as soon as it is hung.
There are rows of huge stone sinks and table on which the items are scrubbed and pounded. This is not light work, although this lady, no spring chicken made it appear so.
Water was flying and I wanted nothing less than to get in the way of the spray to cool off myself.
Washing of all shapes and colors was strung up wherever there was something to tie a line
Nimble fingers could peg and unpeg in the blink of an eye!
This is a home of one of Bangalore's traditional laundries or dhobi. It appears that not anyone can become a dhobiwalla. It is a position that is passed down from generation to generation and in Bangalore as in all big Indian cities there are some renowned dhobi families who have owned their business for generations.
Purander has obviously long decided some of my antics in India are a tad wierd but I think stopping in the heat of the day to take pictures of people doing their washing will need some beating!!
Essentially laundry is collected from hotels and big business round the city, washed, ironed folded and returned within the day. It is so hot at the moment in Bangers and monsoon has not struck so I imagine business must be booming as everything must dry as soon as it is hung.
There are rows of huge stone sinks and table on which the items are scrubbed and pounded. This is not light work, although this lady, no spring chicken made it appear so.
Amazing how these traditional methods must still be financially efficient and carry on cheek by jowl with the hi tech.
With all the powercuts in Bangalore, traditional methods can sometimes be better.
ReplyDelete