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| Washing clothes in the Ganges |
In late January my friend and fellow children's book author Ann
Paul and her husband Ron took a trip to India visiting cities from the
far south to New Delhi and Varanasi in the north. Here are her observations of how people do laundry in India. Ann Whitford Paul is a
wonderful author and poet and has written eighteen books for children
and has had her poems included in many anthologies. Her most recent book
is 'Twas the Late Night of Christmas
. You can find out more about Ann and her books at www.annwhitfordpaul.net.
Dirty clothes in India? You don’t need a washing machine. You need a river. The men above are slapping clothes against the steps leading down to the Ganges River. The water is as dirty as it looks. People generally wash their finer clothes at home, while underwear, work clothes, etc. are sent out to be cleaned here. Both men and women work at washing clothes. Even cows come to watch.
If a river isn’t nearby, clothes are sent to a kind of Laundromat—without washers, without driers.
Instead they have small closet-size rooms open to the outside where men stand in the water and slap laundry against the platform.
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| Notice—no clothespins! |
Next, the clothes are hung out to dry.
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| How would you like to have a washing load this big? |
Some are spread out on the ground.
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| This young man is carrying a load to be ironed. |
Because of the high heat and bright sun, the clothes and household linens dry in as little as ten minutes.
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| Sprinkling clothes. |
A woman sprinkles the linens . . .
then she rolls them up and sends them to be ironed.
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| Ironing |
The iron is black and heavy and not electric. Instead it’s filled with burning coals.
Doing laundry in India is just as strenuous as it looks. But not for these two boys on vacation from school. They get to play a game while their parents work. But not for long. Most likely when they finish school, they will follow their parents occupations and wash laundry too.
