When someone says Australia, my senses sharpen in delight. I imagine the great outdoors, wonderful beaches, surfing and the beautiful people living there. There is a rush of adrenaline!
There is a sense of excitement in the term –‘Australia’ it has always fascinated me that at one point in my life I believed that it was my destination of choice. A soft factor emerges from Australia that attracts; maybe it’s the sporty beer ads and the surf boards that evoke that emotion. But unfortunately not anymore…
Let me introduce the typical Indian student who goes to Australia; let’s call him Ravi for instance. Ravi is around 21, medium height, not built an average student, has a sibling, and comes from a middle class family in India. His father works for a public limited company his mother is a housewife and his sister is still studying. He lives in a city in a small suburb nothing spectacular, but it’s sufficient.
Ravi aspires to go international to study, convinces his parents that it is the right choice for him. His parents are reluctant to send him far from home, in their eyes he is still a kid. Ravi cites examples of other kids who made this move and convinces them. Ravi’s father then tells him about the expense involved and says it is very difficult to make it happen as it was never planned. Ravi goes and talks to his friends and comes back with the suggestion of a bank loan. Ravi’s father still is not interested and does not want to listen to any of it and reminds him of the astronomical dollars involved!! Ravi becomes adamant; his mom bursts into tears and tries an emotional angle on the son. Ravi has made up his mind, its Australia or nowhere else!!
After a week of heated debate and cold war an understanding is reached. That Ravi shall go abroad! Ravi is thrilled beyond words; he has already started dreaming of life abroad. He does not get sleep at night in his excitement. The family start preparing, admissions, visa, cash, finance, loans et all. All Negotiations are thru and admissions are done, visa is obtained, tickets are booked and its time to leave. Ravi is excited he dreams of riches of making money of a life of enjoyment. Ravi’s mother seeks blessings of the almighty, prays to all the deities for his son’s success, Ravi’s father is proud and talks to his friends about his son’s destination and the virtue in that decision. Ravi promises to be less of a financial burden and also promises to send some money from abroad.
At the airport there is Ravi and his extended family, chacha, chachi, mama, mami, bhai, behen, aunts, neighbors, friends, lovers…all bid a tear full farewell to Ravi and wish him luck!! Ravi feels loved to see 50 people in the airport waving at him from the departure gate. He is waiting for check in and turns back every 2 mins and he sees 50 pairs of anxious eye balls watching him. Ravi checks in, he is overweight! He curses the air flight officer in silence at the airport counter and tries to do the switch; he removes some clothes from the check in and stuffs it into his hand baggage. He readjusts the cooker, vessels, the chawal (rice) and dal (lentils) he is carrying. Stuffing as much as he can in the hand luggage, phew just made it. Ravi checks in! His mother starts weeping; his father gives him thumbs up sign! And puts up a brave face – Go make me proud son he says in silence!
Ravi Arrives in Melbourne, his mouth opens looking at the airport. He gawks around and suddenly he feels like a village bumpkin. He gets out of the airport and looks around for someone who has come to receive him, he feels disappointed! Suddenly he misses his family and there is a strong emotion running from his lower gut up his body. Welcome to Australia Ravi! That night is the longest night he spends in his room; he is unable to sleep and thinks about his family.
Life goes on and Ravi acclimatizes himself makes friends at the university, settles down and then thinks about making a living. Starts applying for part time jobs, looks around for odd jobs. He is extremely lucky and lands himself a decent job at 15 Australian $ per hour, he works hard, he does some cash jobs in the weekend, works extra hours if needed. He manages to make enough money and at the end of the month does the math, he has a surplus!! Without a doubt in his head he sends money home to his parents, tries to contribute towards his expensive education. He feels happy, relieved and start believing that he can do this every month. Education and employment takes most of his time, he comes back to cook and eat at home – he saves the last penny!
Time flies and now he feels comfortable, he manages to study at night, attend univ in the morning, work in the evenings and socializes in his limited means, nothing expensive mind you. He needs to conserve and send money to his parents. Its holiday time univ is closed, his teachers are out on vacation surfing, cycling, adventure sports on the beaches then its autumn, winter sets in there is another vacation his university teachers are out again on vacation heading to warmer places. Ravi stays put!! He is working, eating at home, spends his time studying and offers his morning prayers to appease the god’s.
Spring arrives and with it an incredible offer, he gets an 8 hour job that would pay him $200. Ravi gets up early to leave his house, says his prayers, eats his breakfast, calls his folks in India and leaves home. Ravi is walking all alone in his block thinking of his university exams and if he can probably do a trip to the gold coast, since it’s out of his season now he reasons and he has a small saving he can experience the beautiful beaches. Suddenly he snaps out of his thoughts when he sees something approaching quickly from the corner. He stops and looks in the side to feel a very muscular hand landing on his jaw; it felt like a hammer just landed on his face. He falls down on the sidewalk, gets up quickly and gets ready to run. Before he can set off, he sees a group of 6 guys well built, tall, athletic guys looking down on him.
They rag him a little, play with him. He is unable to decipher their slur, he is trying to place the accent and get used to it. He understands the term – ‘money’ now he knows what they want. He slips his hand in his purse and pulls out his wallet and hands it over, they are disappointed in him to find only a 50 $ bill, Ravi has taken the advice of his father and has kept a 200$ bill in his pocked on the inside of his pant. He does not get that out. They chide him and make fun of him, they push him but he is determined not to give the rest of the money, he pleads to them that he is just a student and he is poor and his family is not financially well off. They hear nothing of it, push him to a corner. They pull his Gold chain that he is wearing given to him by his mama for his 18th birthday, Ravi feels disappointed and tells them that he can give them more money but not the chain, since that is a gift.
He pulls out the 200$ with which he was planning the vacation, and offers them the money. They get enraged, they call him a liar, they call him a rat and to go back to where he belonged. Suddenly he felt a very painful twinge in his stomach, very sharp and painful, he looked at his stomach and all he could see was blood gushing out. He felt another twinge of pain, this time on his back, he felt like his body was on fire. He felt faint, he felt his heart racing in his body, he could hear it pump like a wild animal caged, and it wanted to break free. He felt sleepy, he felt helpless, and he was missing his family. He was thinking of how he would earn the $200 today, and suddenly he felt weak and drained… he could feel something warm on his face. Someone was pissing on him, Ravi never once thought he would die, but he did…… Ravi returns home in a coffin to a greiving family, peace be upon him.
Now listen up Australia and fellow Australian’s, is this you want to be remembered for? Has the rush of adrenaline pushed you to a corner that you behave like a street rat spreading chaos and confusion for the Indian Community? What exactly is your problem? Do you feel that we are a threat? Do you think we take away your low paid jobs? Is that why you hate us? We Indian contribute about 5 billion $ + annually to your education system, we give business to your education institutes, airways, hotels, hostels and your local economy. We fund your expensive vacation that your teacher’s take; we contribute in their buying houses and car’s. We contribute to your government for building roads, infrastructure projects and communities.
Do you look at our 15 $ per hour part time job as a threat!! Have you forgotten the 5 billion $ contribution. Let me promise you that we are capable of putting you out of business and spending elsewhere. All your glitzy marketing will go down as a useless expense if you do not curb this menace and give us a safe passage! We do not want to indulge in your bullshit about similar attacks in a big city. Stop this racial profiling and look inward, run campaigns, run adverts, do whatever it takes, but STOP this. Protect Ravi…Is this the person you really want to kill?
