The success story of Panjim city’s car wash veterans
Goa has the highest per capita income and ironically, it also has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, with people fighting hard to make ends meet. If you are without a school education, it is all the more difficult to eke out a living, especially with the high cost of living index. It is within this context that a bunch of young men from Karwar, Andhra Pradesh and Kanyakumari, none of whom had made it past their eighth and ninth class in school, descended on Goa to earn a livelihood by setting up a ‘roadside car wash’ for the convenience of city car owners.
Though it started on a very small scale at that time, the hustle was innovative. In today’s terminology, the collective venture (of youth without education) could be labelled as a ‘startup’. It provided a very valuable service to the common man in a hurry.
Ramesh Gandam, who now lives in Chimbel, came down to Goa in 1994 and started washing cars outside the Garcia de Orta Garden, Panjim. He would fetch water from the municipal well in the garden, in his small tin, and wash cars. Business was hard to come by during those days, since the number of cars was relatively less. Santosh Govekar, who hails from Karwar and is now settled in Betim, came down in 1999, while Selvaraj came down from Kanyakumari in 2007 and settled in Ponda, another Santosh Govekar also from Karwar came down in 1992 and settled in St Cruz, while Stephen Das came down from Kanyakumari 25 years ago and settled down in Merces.
Out of this bunch, two who worked in the team for over 40 years, died, while one has left this service, leaving Santosh, Selvaraj and Stephen. All of them now have their families, have educated their children and even gotten them married, after making Goa their home. All of them speak fluent Konkani and work hard to make their living. Their car washing service starts as early as 7am and goes on till 6pm. They have lunch on the job.
The greatest advantage of having such a service in the heart of the city is that in case you are in a tearing hurry to attend a function during the weekday, or have to go for an outing on Sunday, you can leave your vehicle with these men, who are now in their late 50s or early 60s, and hop across to have a cup of chai at the nearest restaurant and bingo – your car is sparkling clean, by the time you return.
When they started off in 1994, they were charging Rs 10 to wash the car on the outside and Rs 15 for both inside and outside. Over the years, their rates increased from Rs 30, to Rs 50, to Rs 80, to Rs 100 and then onto Rs 150, Rs 180 and now Rs 200 per wash. But the business was not always easy – when the Garcia de Orta Garden was renovated, the CCP closed the garden entrance which prevented them from fetching water from the municipal well, they recall.
They were told to stop the service of car washing since it gave a ‘dirty’ look to the city, even as they were ‘cleaning’ cars. However, some
social activists such as late
Adv Satish Sonak, artist Subodh Kerkar, Devidas Amonkar and banker Prashanti fought against the then government to allow them to carry on with their service.
Today, the three colleagues are still sprightly for their age, albeit a bit slower and rounder than when they began over 25 years ago. Today, they fetch water from around 300 metres away, from a private well, thanks to the kindness of the Velho family. But they are happy to serve every customer with a soiled car and put the sparkle back on their
vehicles.
