Dhobi -The Indian Iron and Laundry man

The dhobi  or  laundry and  iron man in India  is  an institution in himself. In  fact  a dhobi caste exists and  is  recognized  and scheduled  by  the  government as  a  caste  in  need  of  empowerment.

With  the age  of  the  washing machine and  dhobis turning  to more  educated  and respectable  professions - (they  have special privileges  and  education and job  allotments,)   fewer  dhobis remain in the  fray.

There was  once  a  time  when every one (except  for  the  economically  backward) used  the  services  of  a  dhobi.

The  dhobi man  came  to  your  house  on his  bicycle to  collect  your  weekly laundry . Everything from  linen, to  all  sorts   of  garments , kitchen cloths,  bed  covers, sheets curtains even under wear (if  you so wanted) was  unloaded from  the family 's  laundry closet or  bag by  the dhobi. He  would then  seperate  each item according  to its nature and  gather  them  into  orderly piles. The  lady  of  the  house would  then come out  with  a  laundry book in which she  had  a list of all the  clothes to be  washed . As  she  called out the  name of  the  item,  the dhobi would  count the  number and  and tell the   memsahib. She  would  then enter it  in her  laundry book.  For  example
Saris -5
Towels - 8
Shirts - 11
Tablecloths (big)- 2
Tablecloths (small) -5 and so forth.

After that  the  dhobi would lay  out the  freshly washed  and  ironed  clothes which he  had  taken last  week and   lay  them out neatly on a  clean  spread  or carpet. Then  the accounting would begin in reverse  order. This  ritual would  be  repeated  once or  twice  a week.

The  dhobis  were   very  honest  and reliable,  but  occasionally clothes  would  disappear. Everyone  had  a  family  dhobi. Ours  was an ancient man who died  several  years  ago. His  sons  all have   very   good jobs  and  no one  pursued  this  lowdown laborious  profession.

The  dhobiji would  carry  the  laundry   wrapped  up  in  a  large  cotton sheet on the  back of  his  bicycle. They  also  used  donkeys -  specially  to  transport laundry to the dhobi ghat ( community washing  areas) or  riverside .

The  clothes  would be  pressed  with a  charcoal fired  iron box,  they  had  modern  electric  irons  too.

Now  of   course with modernization set  in, very  few  dhobis  are  around. They  are  more expensive  too. Laundry women (dhobins) can come to  your  house   and   do  your   laundry  by hand, then take the  dry  clothes (in the  evening) to  be ironed   in their  homes. And then there  are   the  advanced  , state  of  the   art dry cleaners  and laundries.

In the  good  old days I  was  given the  chore  of maintaining  the laundry book. It was fun. I  miss them old  times - the  smell  and touch  of  the   dhobi 's laundry.

Just  down the  down from  our  gate  a iron man sets  up  his  street  business.
He  presses  people 's  clothes. Different rates   for each item. He is  using  the  ancient iron, filled  with  charcoal embers. I sometimes give him   the  more  tricky clothes  to iron like  cotton  and  silk saris. He  does an excellent job.

( the  above  3  photos  were  shot  by me)

Did any one  of  you  use  a  laundry man  like him?

PS

This morning my Sheeba (dog) killed

a field rat - a huge  one.

Well done  Sheeba-

she ' s really in the hunting  mood  now.

We  are  harvesting lots of  tomatoes .

When (no ifs here) you come  to visit me

I will give  you a  bag full.

Soon instead of  blood  I will

be having tomato juice running

in my  veins.

I  am making  lots  of puree to  preserve.

As Good as It Gets

Today we had our real monsoon showers.

We had from light to moderate rain throughout the day.


Temperature came down and the humidity too.

At 3 in the afternoon the sky was black with clouds

and with a cool breeze blowing

Sheeba and I sat out on the porch

enjoying the moment.


It good to see nature washed and clean.

My mom is already worried about floods.

Actually there is flooding in North Western India,

New Delhi has taken a lashing too.

But Eastern U.P. where w e live is

so drought stricken, I don 't think

there are chances of flooding here.

Water logging, - plenty of it in the cities though.

Well, besides all this it was a

BLUE/BLACK Day for us

Blue for the rain

and black for the power outages.

Yesterday too we had incessant power cuts

all day and through the night.

Today it was worse.

We 've hardly had a decent supply.

Composing this post has taken me a long time.

A man who had been to the electricity sub-station

told us there is something wrong

with a transformer.

Well, its taking them 2 days and a night to fix it.

Stamp...stamp...stamp!

The water supply came when there was no

power, so I could not fill the

overhead tank properly.

But I choose electricity over water.

What about you?

Oh well, in the West people don' t

have to worry about this option,

at least not on a daily basis.

I think it would be better

living in the middle of the

Amazon forest

rather than this contrete jungle.

When the lights went out again at 9pm

Sheeba and I sat out in the garden

trying to enjoy the wedding fireworks

all around us.

Folks tonight is an auspicious wedding night

so scores of weddings are taking place around us

in the post hotels and weddings halls

in our neighbourhood.

But Sheeba doesn 't like the idea of wedding fireworks.

She takes umbrage at people throwing

fire at the sky accompanied by

loud bangs and music.

She lodges her complaints with powerful barks.

I tell her ;Sheeba beta, let

others enjoy getting married

while we are collecting our tears in a bottle

in the dark.

To amuse myself I took

some photos of the fireworks

with my mobile phone.

Haven' t uploaded them yet. I want to finish this post and

R.I.P.

read

Rest in Peace

or

Return If Possible.
So glad there won' t be any shortage

of light and water in heaven.

The river of life flows there

and

the Lamb (Christ)

is the Light.

Driven by Despair

I will indulge my sorrows, and give way To all the pangs and fury of despair. Author: Joseph Addison
These must have been the terminal thoughts of a young man called Goray who took his life yesterday morning.His relatives found him hanging by a rope in his dark hut in the village when they went to call him for breakfast.
Stories like these appear in the newspaper everyday. Today I read that 3 adults and 2 children killed themselves because they were wronged by a village council (khap panchayat).But Goray 's death came as a big shock to my Mama and me because we knew him since childhood. He had come to see us recently and we tried to help him.

We had known Goray since he was a kid. His uncle and family used to live in our church out house and helped us with odd jobs and errands. Vishamber (uncle) has a blue collar job in a government office. Vishambar 's son Chummu got involved with the law, so had to ask them to leave the church premises.

Goray worked as a houseboy and driver for government officers. But 3 months ago he lost his job. His married elder brother Kallu who has a criminal bent of mind gave him unending trouble. Kallu defrauded Goray to give him all his savings under the pretext of buying a house and sharing it with him. But he turned him away.
Kallu is married and has forced his wife to undergo several abortions.He has been involved in various anti-social activities. When Goray came to know that Kallu was planning to elope to Mumbai (Bombay) with another woman, he prevented it.
Kallu reacted with terrible anger and rage and beat up diminutive and frail Goray several times. The injured brother incurred severe head injuries and Vishambar paid for his treatment as the poor boy was destitute and had no where to go being penniless.
Goray 's father is an impoverished farmer and does not care for his family at all. Vishambar was sheltering his nephew for the past 3 months. He also finds hard to make ends meet as he has a large family to support.
About 10 days ago I called Chummu, (who has somewhat reformed himself and is married with a 3 yr old son) to fix my window swamp cooler. He came along with his pretty wife Manju who sat with my Mama and me and shared her family and life problems with us.
I will tell her story later on.
All these are village based people belonging to the peasant caste. Manju belongs to a higher caste. Chummu has a Bachelor' s degree and he does small electrician jobs.
While Chummu was fixing the cooler, Goray also came over . We met him after several month and he looked a mess. Skinny, weak and very depressed.
He shared his tragic story with us and said he was desperately looking for a job. With tears in his eyes he said he was contemplating suicide. Mama and I counselled him for a long time and asked him to pray to Jesus ( none of these people are Christians).
Our church groundskeeper said he would look for a driver 's job for him.I gave them Gospel portions and tried to encourage them.
Then Goray suddenly asked,,"Didi,(elder sister) can I make tea in your kitchen?" I immediately took Manju and Goray into the kitchen and showed them where everything was and said ;Go ahead and make tea for all of us, which we had with cookies.
Goray must have been feeling really destitute because he aske d me for vegetables. I had already made up a packet with what ever I had and gave it to him.When we paid Chummu we said use some of it for Goray too.
The news struck us very deeply. And my Mama was sick the whole day today, she suffers from nervous anxiety. Earlier this week Mama 's cousin sister passed away. I went to her funeral on Wednesday. This was grief upon grief.

These days people are giving up so easily. Depression, fear anxiety hopelessness is choking life out of people.Poverty fuelled by despair is pushing people over the edge.

Vishambar and Goray belong to Ganne village which was in the headlines earlier this month.
The newspapers reported that children of Ganne village were eating silica laced mud to assuage their hunger.Helped has reached that village just 45 kms away from my city.

Read the story HERE

But there is so much to be done. Our church groundskeeper Jags is very sick. Doctors suspect ulcers in his stomach. We are doing whatever we can and still more is needed. Please pray that the Lord fulfil our desire to help this poor man.The salary we give him is not enough for his medical treatment.

We believe our God -

"He raises the poor from the dust.

And lifts the needy from the ash heap'" Psalm 113;7

"How blessed is he who considers the helpless.

The Lord will deliver him in the day of trouble,

The Lord will protect him and keep him alive,

And he shall be called blessed upon the earth;

And do not give him over to the desires of his enemies.

The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed;In his illness Thou dost restore him to health."

Psalm 41;1-3