SAandBeyond Magazine December 2019 publish

Dhobi Ghats
The Dhobi Ghats in Mumbai can only be described
as an ‘open air laundromat’ where even the poshest
of hotels have their laundry done every day by a wad
of washers standing knee deep inside pools of soap
froth as they swing and twirl and twist large wrings
of washing like a cowboy with a thick lasso over their
heads which they thrash against what can only be
described as a concrete washboard.
I was hoping to capture only a few images of life
in the Dhobi Ghats from a distance through a long
lens, but my guide somehow managed to arrange for
me to photograph inside the Ghat where visitors are
not normally permitted but guests are always warmly
welcomed.
There I found what at first seemed to me like a vast
confusion of washing pails, soap, suds, water, hosepipes
and laundry stacked all over in piles that had no names
or labels or tags at all to tell what was in the the pile
and who the pile belonged to.
Amid all the washing activity where there is no
9-to-5 routine and no one ever bothers with weekends
or public holidays, I met the Dhobi Wallahs where they
also live together with their entire families in small,
cubbyhole-like rooms that were all surprisingly neat,
very tidy and, like their washing, impeccably
clean.
But in spite of what looked like
mayhem to me with all the work going
on, children playing around, mothers
cooking and fresh chai tea being brewed
on small Primus stoves all over, every
piece of washing is somehow promptly
returned at the end of the day to its
nameless owner, crisp, clean and
folded crease free.
Even though I tried very hard
to understand how the Dhobi
Ghat system actually works - how
the Ghat people manage to
produce such immaculate Surf
results under such apparently
squalid conditions without
Taj Palace Hotel with Gateway to India. Photos: Michele Immelman and others
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