(Image courtesy: Wikipedia)
‘Sikh student becomes 20th Indian victim in Oz’, ‘Aussie teens try to cut Sikh youth’s hair’ announced today’s newspaper. But what caught my eye in yet another repetitive news clip about the Oz ‘racism’ attacks was the word ‘Dandenong Station’ and a ‘Singh’.
Dandenong is a place that I have been to and know very well. I was sent to work in the General Motors (GM) office in Dandenong for a few months. Every morning, I took a train from Flinders Station to this far-off suburb. The suburb is nearly an hour’s journey on train from the city. At the Dandenong station, it was another 15 minute taxi ride to the GM office in Dandenong Industrial zone. As you ride out of Dandenong town, you can see the factories or ware houses in the industrial zone that borders the town. Dandenong once thrived due to automobile economy.
Then as the auto slump happened, the factories were shifted to China; the warehouses either closed or just have a token presence here. Scores of factory workers were displaced. An Aussie colleague told me that this was huge impact on the locals and the living standards declined. If you take a train from Dandenong to the city on a friday evening or in the weekends, you can see the antics of alcohol induced morons who take the train back home.
However, the suburb has also got a strong South Asian presence. Like any other suburb of big cities, the cost of living is cheaper here and the immigrant community thrives on small businesses. Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indians all have storefronts that have names like ‘Taj Mahal’, ‘Zamzam’, ‘Kohinoor’ etc that cater to every Indian need. GM’s canteen was not very vegetarian friendly. So I used to frequent one of the hotels in Dandenong town for a much needed masala dosa or a channa masala, especially on fridays, when work was low.
In Oz, most of the Indian taxi cab drivers are Sikhs or Punjabis; the other huge community, the Telugu speaking Andhra students prefer manning the stores. Many Punjabis who come to study here also have a motive of settling in Australia. A ‘resident’ status for a Punjabi is an obsession. I once met a friendly Punjabi who joked, “If it was declared that Punjabis do not need visas to go abroad, the entire Punjab will become empty in a day”. They work in night shifts, drive cabs on weekends all in the process of making money for their living expenses and also for residency application fees.
The life of an International student is quite tough. The business of ‘education’ is quite cruel as it lures International students by marketing the country’s ‘standard of living’. They have to take up odd jobs to make ends meet. An andhrite once told me, “After spending much money(read dollars) on an MBA, why would I go back to India?”. Makes sense.
But a racist attack in Dandenong is very surprising considering that the strong South Asian population here. Though the teens are noisy and boisterous on trains or in cabs, I hadn’t expected them to be racist in Melbourne. In fact I felt more alienated by my own very ‘Indian’ project team than any white Aussie however drunk he may be. But then I never travelled beyond 9 pm.
I have frequently heard that Indians or Chinese are attacked as they are ‘soft’ targets in all Western countries like the US, the UK, Germany and also in the ‘eastern’ Australia and ‘New Zealand’. What’s surprising is its coverage now in Indian media. Why has it woken up now? Is it because of ‘racism’ in Cricket? The Indian Media bristles at every Aussie jibe on the Indian team. Maybe now they are ‘giving it back’?
Whatever the reason maybe, it has worked well. Australia has now woken up to this problem. It might not be always ‘racist’ as the media suggests, but the bad press has made Australia try to curb this problem.
Ending on a lighter note, a tip for all the Indian journos out there – try the ‘masala dosa’ in Dandenong restaurants. Best I ever had in Australia.
