CLOTHING and dress, apart from being a basic essentiality of life like food and shelter, has a number of symbolic connotations as it reflects the personality of a man, as well as his cultural, national and geographical background. A cursory glance at the dress of a person enables us to identify his origin and his homeland.
Incontrovertibly, all of us, with few exceptions are prone to be dress-conscious. Everyone of us would like to dress up elegantly and tastefully, according to the prevailing modes, trends and fashions. A dress reveals the social status and the sartorial tastes of a person. Apart from being well-tailored, a dress has to be neat, clean, properly washed, ironed and starched. No wonder, the washing and laundering of clothes constitutes an important and unavoidable part of daily household chores.
The responsibility of washing clothes generally falls upon the womenfolk, particularly in the rural areas and in the low and middle income groups. In very remote and backward areas of our country, women still take loads of washable clothes to the riversides or streams, mainly due to the shortage of running water hi their homes. A large number of women engaged in washing clothes along the rivers present an eye-catching sight. While doing their job, they gleefully take resort to banters, little-tattles and rumour-mongering. Perhaps, this way the arduousness of the job is eased and they collectively impart a semblance of conviviality to the ambience.
The clothes are spread on the banks to dry in the sunshine, while the women avail the opportunity and indulge in a long, over-due bath. The river, thus, serves as nature’s swimming pool for them. No one objects to these seemingly innocuous activities, The village women and belles are not even remotely aware about issues such as water pollution. When buffaloes can wallow luxuriantly in the watery expanse, why should human beings be questioned for that? There is, however, a point to ponder. The dwellers of remote villages should have easy access to water at least near their homes and they should be taught about the gravity of the problem of water pollution.
In the towns and large cities, in the families coping with shoestring budgets, women bear the responsibility of washing clothes. They, generally, make use of low-priced laundry soap. They beat the clothes with a broad-edged club, believably a reliable method of removing the dirt and grime, particularly from bed sheets and large-sized clothes. Washing of clothes is thus a tardy, strenuous and time-consuming process. Now the availability of a large variety of detergents has made the job of washing clothes relatively less strenuous. There is strong competition among the producers of various detergent powders, each trying to cater to the likes and tastes of the consumers, the sovereigns of market economies.
This reminds me of a TV programme in which the washing powder was distributed freely among households as a publicity measure, much to the benefit of housewives, no doubt. This amply proves the fact that washing of clothes is one of the most important routines of our daily life and washing soap is a commodity that has an important place in the shopping list of the consumers. In some middle income groups, the job of washing clothes is entrusted to part-time or full-time maids, often referred to as ‘massi’.
Preposterously enough, the job of washing clothes is considered to be solely a woman’s responsibility, but the washer men do not consider it a threat to their masculinity by doing the same job. In higher income brackets, there is a great reliance on the services of washer men. In most of the houses the dhobi is a regular weekly visitor. The ladies of the house simply have to keep an account of the number of clothes taken and delivered back by the washer man.
Once upon a time, washer men, like barbers, were institutions in themselves. Though from the societal point of view their status was not viewed with any degree of esteem. They performed menial jobs, yet their services were indispensable for the elite and well-to-do people. The visit of a dhobi in the big havelis was a routine affair. In Urdu literature, the dhobi, with his many faceted personality, has been a popular character with many storytellers. Dhobi ghat generally located in open areas, in the city outskirts, presented a rare sight with countless clothes from diverse households hung along rows and rows of clotheslines.
The way the washer men used to beat the clothes against the rocky elevations and stones produced a melodic echo referred to as ‘chooa choo’ in some poems and short stories of yore. The washer woman or the dhoban was a peculiar character, often clad in an ankle-length skirt (ghagra). Probably, her obesity in the majority of instances led to the coinage of the phrase ‘Nau man ki dhoban’ (A woman as grotesquely plum as a washer woman). In the days of old, a donkey was the constant and unavoidable companion of the washer man for carrying loads of clothes for him. Now, many of them own cycles, and even motorbikes, for this purpose.
Many of us would complain unequivocally about the deterioration in the services of washer men. In the days gone by, they used to work honestly and painstakingly. Now, like all other vocations, their work too leaves us with the results far from being satisfactory. The clothes are not tidily washed, the stains are not properly removed, probably due to the water shortage that has adversely affected every segment of our society.
It is commonly believed that washer men are gradually being relegated to the background and are subject to a slow, yet perceptible, process of extinction. They have virtually lost their pristine place and importance in our society. The mass dependence upon them is diminishing with time. This can be attributed to two main factors.
The extensive introduction of washing machines in the market has made laundry at home an easy and time-saving affair. The labour-saving devices, no doubt, reduce our dependence on manual labour. Without any physical strain and exertion, clothes can be washed and even dried in no time. There is no need to spend time and physical energy in performing this important household chore.
There is, however, a point to ponder here. The massive use of mechanical appliances has made us too lethargic and averse to physical exertion. According to some, washing of clothes with one’s hands is an exercise conducive to good health and physical fitness. The fact, however, remains that like refrigerators, TV sets, microwave ovens and washing machines have become important and indispensable items of household use. It has become a status symbol to include the washing machine in the dowry of brides.
The second factor, in this context, is the mushrooming of dry-cleaning shops in the big cities. More expensive, silken clothes and woollies are preferably delivered for careful washing to the dry-cleaners. The washer men are, thus, driven to the peripheries and their services are mainly utilized for getting the bed-covers and uniforms, washed and ironed.
I have often heard people complaining that the washer men wash the clothes under unhygienic conditions. The clothes from various houses are dumped together so that contagious diseases, particularly skin diseases can be caused this way. There is another group of people having a firm belief that dhobis would continue to be there despite the drastic change in the modes of washing clothes. The dry-cleaning shops are but a modified version of dhobi ghats, just as hair-cutting salons are modern forms of barbershops.
The washing of clothes, admittedly, is an unavoidable activity of daily life. It is for this reason that numerous detergents are being invented and publicized. Indisputably, maximum number of advertisements on television are from the producers of soaps and detergents. Some packets of detergents contain a spoon or other such item to lure the consumers. Likewise, consumers throng the shops that sell washing machines on easy instalments.
CLOTHING and dress, apart from being a basic essentiality of life like food and shelter, has a number of symbolic connotations as it reflects the personality of a man, as well as his cultural, national and geographical background. A cursory glance at the dress of a person enables us to identify his origin and his homeland.
