My first experience of the land "down under" has just come to a close (Nov 2010). As the plane had begun its descent into Melbourne, I remember looking out of the window to catch my first glimpses of this foreign place of which I had heard and read so much. The early sunshine rays added to the charm of the panoramic landscape that unfolded. The sun rises as early as 5.30 AM in the summer (~ November-January) and sets at around 8 PM at night! Quite a day huh! The small family homes, clean roads and grassy countrysides reminded me of my trip to Japan early this year. I was all set to be amazed and delighted with the aussi experience.
Upon reaching the small port-town of Newcastle, we were received by our host at the airport and took us straight for lunch by the river at the Queen's wharf. Newcastle is one those small towns that grew by virtue of the industry it supported, coal mining and exports. The Newcastle port is supposed to be the largest coal trading port in the southern hemisphere. En route to the hotel, we did pass by the port, but it seemed nothing like a gigantic harbour. Being a riverine port, I guess the sheer spread of it masked its actual size as it appeared in bits and pieces here and there as one passed through the city. The huge piles of coal reminded me of the port back home in Vasco da Gama - the pollution it has been causing due to wind blown coal dust has been a major nuisance in Vasco.
After our lovely lunch on the wharf, we headed to our hotel and checked in to our comfortable rooms to rest for a while. Come evening, we all got out to explore the city like a bunch of excited school boys! We walked along many streets, climbed up a hill to get to the Anglican cathedral that was situated atop the hill. Very gothic and medieval in it's looks, the church was completely red in its appearance because of the brickwork. It had a quaint bell tower that resembled a Viking watchtower. After some more walking around we ended up on a street that had several coffee shops and one Indian take-out "the Taj" by around 8 PM with still some day-light! So after a good cup of coffee, we were off on our way back to the hotel.
That's when we began to notice something strange. One our way back, as we were walking along the pavements of Hunters' street, some of the cars would slow down as they neared us and then drive away. Then one of them rolled down their windows and hollered at us something we couldn't make out clearly and then sped off. This happened a couple of times more with other drivers, all young males. Clearly it was not something very pleasant they were trying to say to us, so we hurried off to our hotel. We were reminded of the news items we read back in India, of Indians being racially targeted in Australia. Who knew the how true those articles were - but today we had had a sense of that truth.
After completing our two days of research meetings and discussions with our Australian counterparts, we began to unwind for the weekend. We had a day before we left Australia. That evening we visited the local super store to pick up a few chocolates and takeaways for friends and family back home. After strolling through the stores and picking up a few items, we passed by a Pakistani fast food shop and decided to sit outside in the sun on a park bench. The sky was perfectly blue with a dash of clouds here and there and there was a slight breeze blowing. As we were observing other shoppers come by and park their cars, some coming out with large grocery bags, we were approached by two men, rather short and quite unruly looking. One of them clearly seemed to be under the influence of something. Without any warning he came up close and flicked my spectacles onto the road and began threatening me with dire consequences. He then pushed my friend away and threatened him too. For a moment we didn't realise what was happening. But then it was clear these guys were actually racially abusing us to leave "his country". Since we didn't react, it didn't get into a fight. When he finally backed off a little, we picked up our stuff and walked away not wanting any trouble. What shocked us even more was that the locals just walked about their usual business buying groceries, and shopping for the week ahead without even so much as stopping by to see the commotion these two punks had created. And what was even heartening was the guy from the Pakistani store called out to us before we left to see if we were fine.
Such is the world my friends! Surreal, unreal, unseemingly apparent and yet not obvious. We doubt and question and reason as to how things are and why things are the way they are; but actually its more complex than all that. reason, theory and experience cannot explain all of todays situations and issues.
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