Water and space in Mumbai are both at a premium, so how do things get washed? The rare washer also serves as your drier, resulting in damp sheets with nowhere to hang them. DHOBI to the rescue.
Dhobi Ghat in Hindi literally means "wash man at the river". Washing centers are found throughout India, but none compares in size to Mumbai's Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat. Dating back to British rule, these 700 washing platforms employ about 200 families and between 5,000 to 8,000 people.
Dhobis by the hundreds collect thousands of items daily to be washed from homes, hotels, restaurants and businesses. Items are marked by household, bundled and brought to the ghat by hand or cart, to be returned washed, pressed and folded. More delicate items are washed elsewhere or dry cleaned if silk.
Simply need ironing? A "press-walah" picks up your damp clothes, which are then ironed with a coal filled iron.
All done without receipts or tags stapled to ones clothes and we're told errors never occur. It's Six Sigma personified!
No comments:
Post a Comment