In a first-hand account, a 23-year-old Sydney-based student of Indian origin shares some of his shocking experiences in Australia with MiD DAY on email
In a first-hand account, a 23-year-old Sydney-based student of Indian origin shares some of his shocking experiences in Australia with MiD DAY on email
My experiences in Australia (Sydney) date back to 2005. I was enrolled in Macquarie University in Sydney for a BBA course, specialising in Marketing and Economics. It was the cold morning of July 16 when I landed here. The only thing on my mind: OMG, it's so different. Many people back home think life in a foreign country is very easy; you have a lot of fun and enjoy. But to be there is a different story. Not many of us are fortunate financially, so a large population of Indian students work while they are studying, and I did the same.
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The coffin has come: Relatives mourn the death of Indian student Nitin Garg at his residence in Jagraon in Punjab on Sunday. Garg was killed in Melbourne, Australia. PIC/MID DAY |
There was no family, no mothering, no home. Slowly, however, independence sunk in and I made friends among foreigners. Everything was just going fine, till that night, when me and my mates were almost robbed by some random guys in a quite suburb. That came as the first blow. To be frank, it was a wake-up call for me. The incident left one of my friends with a smashed cheek bone and me with some bruises. Luckily, I survived to tell the story. That is when I realised the most important lesson in life: nothing is safe, actually, no one is safe.
Anything can happen to anyone and that's how life is, in Sydney. Not that Sydney isn't safe. The motives behind this incident may not have been racist after all.u00a0
Every city has its good side and bad, but foreign students like me who work and study have a tough time, especially when you are aiming for higher grades in one of the better universities. Australians, in general, are warm human beings, and the fact that I believe in this has helped me survive. Every country has a minor population that is racist. I have also seen that a very common type of racism stems from various stereotypes that India is associated with. Yes we are loud, yes we have that Indian accent, but the fact that we are in a different country altogether calls for a change in our behaviour. We need to be more familiar with our surroundings and have to adapt accordingly. For instance, one of my last experiences shows how they aren't familiar with what we have achieved in all these years. Once, one of my classmates (an Australian) walked into my room, looked at my 12th class Maths books and said, 'I didn't know books in India are written in English!'
That was the most gobsmacking thing I have ever heard, and I gave him a 10-minute lesson on what Indian books are like. This shows that they still live in the dark about Indian culture, and so end up fanning their prejudices.
All said, I have been here for more that 4 years now, and still happy at the struggle, for it teaches you a lot.
The writer has requested anonymity for safety reasons
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Racial attacks (approximately) took place in May, 2009, in Sydney alone, says a report |
| Indians under attack |
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2008: A 26-year-old accounting student, Kanan Kharbanda, is now blind in his right eye after being assaulted by 10 people in Sunshine, Melbourne, in March 2008
A 23-year-old catering student who had graduated from Brighton Institute of Technology was assaulted by five people in the suburb of Sunshine, Melbourne, in December, 2008. The victim, in a coma, was admitted to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a serious condition. At the time, Victorian Police said, "Indians had long been over represented in robbery statistics."
A 20-year-old student was stabbed in the leg and his mobile phone was stolen
2009: Sravan Kumar Theerthala was hit with petrol bottles by some unidentified teens while he was reading a book in his house at Melbourne.
Baljinder Singh, another student from India studying in Melbourne, was robbed and stabbed in his abdomen
Four students were attacked and burgled: Suketu Modi, a businessman from Surat, was attacked in a train by a group of students when he had gone there for IT business.
The body of Ranjodh Singh, 25, was found beside Wilga road, Willbriggie, in southwest New South Wales, on Dec 29
2010: Last weekend, graduate student Nitin Garg was stabbed to death as he walked to work at a fast food restaurant in Melbourne. His body was cremated in Ludhiana last afternoon.
On Saturday, Jaspreet Singh, a 29-year-old Indian man, was set ablaze by four unidentified men at Essendon in Melbourne. |
| 'No one from Indian govt attended Nitin's cremation' |
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I do not have much idea about Nitin's death. All that I have heard about the racist attacks is from some friends in Australia, and media reports. It is a shocking thing that no one from the Australian or Indian governments told us or attended the ceremony. No one from either side has spoken
to us about the case. Aren't the governments going to probe it?
Honey, Nitin Garg's uncle |
