Mumbai's Dhobi Ghat - A step back in laundry time

Dobhi Ghat: Mumbai’s unique and oldest laundry facility.

Dhobi = Indian word meaning washerman
Ghat = A place or a station

I arrived at my hotel room in downtown Mumbai at the end of an explorative day, to find a newspaper package tied up with string laying on the neatly made bed.
Excitedly I ripped open the packaging wondering what the contents of this odd package might reveal, hoping for some exotic freebie from the hotel. I was mildly disappointed to find my freshly laundered pair of jeans I had turned in at the reception earlier that day.
I was about to toss the package aside when I came about the unmistakable frayed white cotton tag with the undecipherable indelible black ink marking hanging off the buttonhole. Like the mark of Zorro, this meant only one thing :
My jeans had been beaten up, stomped on and put through its paces at Mumbai’s oldest laundry institution – The Dhobi Ghat.

I called my friend Jyothi and we penciled in a photography visit to the Ghat the next evening. We arrived at the Dhobi Ghat to a welcome sign posted by the government of India, indicating photography was strictly prohibited.
“This is India, don’t worry” quipped Jyothi who after a goodly amount of heated bargaining worked out a deal with an “insider” to let us in to photograph the Ghats for the sum of Rs100 (US$2)
The dirty laundry list on the inside by western standards included child labor, archaic sterilization methods for the cities hospital linens (achieved by boiling linens in large vats over wood burning stoves) poor living conditions and skin to harsh chemical exposure for the workers of the Ghats.
But in refocusing the lens and sharpening the bokeh, I noticed a rich landscape suspended in time somewhere in the 18th century, steeped in tradition and a way of life whose efficacy stood the test of time as the services remain cheaper than dry cleaning, and are utilized by the hotels and hospitals around downtown Bombay.
The photo story can be seen on http://tash007.smugmug.com/gallery/7938689_jraXS#515186533_TgV4C

I pondered on the fact that someone somewhere a century ago would have ritually separated the little frayed cotton tag from their sari or Victorian clothing, just like I was about to do with my jeans today.