I haven't been able to figure out why they should be called so, but 'pinmen' seems to be a common term in these parts. Any ideas?
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Of pins and irons
Somewhere between the full-fledged, automated dry-cleaners and the mobile iron-man on your street lies the group of laundry/iron-ers (?) called 'pinmen'. Here's one of them on R.K.Mutt Road.
I haven't been able to figure out why they should be called so, but 'pinmen' seems to be a common term in these parts. Any ideas?
I haven't been able to figure out why they should be called so, but 'pinmen' seems to be a common term in these parts. Any ideas?
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6 comments:
I GOOGLE-SEARCHED "PINMEN WASHERS" AND I FOUND THE LEAD TO THIS BLOG WITH UNDER CAPTION CHENNAI DAILY PHOTO. THE WORLD IS ROUND.
@ Lviss: Talk about 'circular references'! :)
maybe they were so starved and thin that they looked like pins....
@ Moochhi: Hmmm... the Kate Moss laundry effect, you mean!
This sure is a wonderful place to be in. Thanks a ton, Shantaram.
Talking about 'pinmen', the story - yes it is still a story - goes that the upper crust of the society would love to wear all, or at least most of the pins that they had collected. These were some kind of badges that they considered reflective of the class they belonged to, not the kind of 'Lose weight now - Ask me now' badges. The upper crust probably could not wear the pins themselves for fear of their dresses getting crumpled - the pinmen helped them. Probably somewhere down the line, the pinmen also washed and ironed the clothes - or they already did that and fixing pins was an add-on!
@ Sridhar: Thanks for stopping by - do believe there's something in your story... plus before buttons a lot of pins were needed to fasten the dresses themselves!
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