My Aussie dream Part 1: The Re-begining!"

I am not sure when was the seeds of an “Aussie” life took birth in my mind, but I faintly remember it was way back in 2003/04 that I had started to think about “Life in Australia”. That was about the time I had completed my Chartered Accountancy qualification a few years back and was made aware from some source that accountants were in demand in Australia. It was also about the time I had lost my father a few years back. So, it was an emotional time as well, as the time for me to start working towards building my career and I had to decide whether I wanted to do that in India or abroad.

I had somehow harbored a picture of life outside India from the time I began my studies and became conscious of my independence. As I said, I am not sure where or how the thought of settling outside India, and especially in Australia, came into being, but I had strongly felt for it from the beginning. Maybe it was the urge of living in more open spaces (somehow I have been a freak when it comes to openness and space, clear open spaces have always fascinated me) clean environment and surroundings (I am also a cleanliness freak, ask my wife about it !! J) better infrastructure, more security, better earnings prospects, respect for humans and their efforts was always revolving in my mind. Till today when somebody asks me the reason why I moved to Australia now i.e. in 2018, my answer still remains the same which is 14 years into my career now and having a settled life in India (thankfully I am consistent in something!! :-).

Though, there were options to either apply for jobs outside India and work my way through to a Permanent Residency (PR) or a citizenship while on the job or to commence my career anew in the country based on the PR visa acquired from India and make my living there. I decided on the latter option i.e. acquire a PR visa and enter with a bang into Australia in 2005. At that time Australia had already started to provide PR visa’s based on individual’s skills required in the country. Luckily Accountants were in demand at that time in Australia, and having completed Chartered Accountancy recently I was told that I would be the perfect fit. It seemed the best option!!! In my mind I had already pictured myself settling down in Australia and eventually getting my mother also to stay with me there permanently, as I had lost my father few years back.

The "Man proposes, God disposes" lesson

Armed with that information in hand, I started to look for ways of getting a Permanent Resident visa for Australia and in the process met a consultant who started to guide me into the nitty-gritty’s of the process. The paperwork was painstaking but I was able to gather most of it easily and rest with little more effort and started to submit the same to Australian visa agencies. Though the process went on smoothly and I had to complete the penultimate step of submitting my medicals, what I didn’t know was that more than the paperwork etc, it would be the actual move to Australia that would be the most difficult!!!!!!! My mother, being alone after my dad passed away not long ago, was internally not in agreement of my move to Australia. Though I always felt that moving to Australia at the start of my career would be intelligent, destiny had some other thoughts……….. (The proverb, “Man proposes, God Disposes” started to become clearer to me……………….)

As luck would have it, after lot of discussions with my mother, I had to abandon my plan to move to Australia in 2005. Sad as I was, I had to keep in mind the comfort of my mother before I moved out, owing to her vulnerable situation at that time. She was still coming out of the loss of her husband and didn’t want to be alone at that time. Being the only son means a lot in the Indian families. There is a lot of expectation from you and as a result I had to give in to the situation. I don’t regret taking that decision though, as her request was also plausible. It forced me to start thinking about life in India now………… not a very happy thought, but was the fact of life at that time!!!!!! All was forgotten and I started to concentrate on my career in India.

Fast forward to 2014……… The fire is rekindled!

I had established myself well in India and had a fledging career and a well-established job which paid me well. I had recently moved to a city in western India called Pune for a job with a bank. By this time my mother was in a much better mental state of mind and moving to Pune was a piece of cake (reasons like “only 4 hours door to door, regular flight options and after all its still India so no visa required to travel” helped J). Having said that, I had moved on from the thought of settling in any country outside India, let alone Australia, but subconsciously I still nurtured the dream.

The thought resurfaced when out of the blue I came to know that a couple who were my friends from Pune declared one fine day over our weekend session of drinks and dinner…..

“WE ARE MOVING TO AUSTRALIA ON A PR VERY SOON!!!!!!!!!!”

It was like old memories flooding back…. All the memories of my “Aussie dream” came flooding back and I lost the “nice fuzzy feeling of being high after few drinks” in one shot. What followed that evening post their revelations was the story telling session of my tryst with the “Aussie dream” in the past, which got them and myself very excited. The thought of settling in Australia was alive again. It was like that phone call from your ex-girlfriend after many years asking you to catch up to remember the good times and knowing that the feelings are still there!!!!! Well, they started to coax me to think about it again and my friend started with the logic..

“Bro…. how much fun it would be to share this beer next to the opera house in Sydney… Imagine!!!!!”.

The logic was “amazing” to say the least!!!. Looked like the bug inside me was still, though the logical mind in me was also working in overdrive now (all the maths, science, biology and chemistry of the idea was brewing again!!). I left their house that evening with a re-activated bug of the “Aussie dream”.

Fast forward to a few days later…………………

The discussion at my friend’s place had been ongoing in my mind when my next door neighbor, a finance professional with Deloitte at that time, while having an end of the day chat with me in the elevator suddenly said..

“I am sick of working in India…. you know I was in Australia for 2 years and then came back to India… I still haven’t figured out the reason for doing the same, but I sooooo regret doing that…”

My first reaction to myself was “Ok!! Now where did this come from?????” He further continued..

“Maybe it was destined that I come to India and got married, but my heart still says I should move back after taking my PR”.

My mind was spinning with thoughts of “Lord, are these some kinds of indications you are trying to give me????”. I replied to him..

“Buddy, though you are well settled here, there is no harm in thinking about it again, if that’s what your calling is”.

A few days later he announced..

“Buddy, I thought about what you had said about the calling and all, and thus I have started the process of applying for mine and my wife’s PR for Australia and I plan to move there in early 2015”.

I looked up and said, “Lord, what the hell is going on?? This is not funny anymore!!”

Fast forward to 2015………… Confusion, confusion, confusion!

On a day to day basis I was getting to know about the developments in both my friend’s and neighbor’s PR applications. Their excitement was growing, and so was my confusion!! The idea of living in Australia and realizing my “Aussie dream” was resurfacing again and on the other hand the idea of leaving a settled life, a settled job, regular salary was discomforting to say the least.

To make the situation more interesting, I finally accepted my mother’s constant pestering of taking the plunge into the nuptial world and I lost my “bachelorhood” (the only real asset I had till then…lol) in October of 2015 but gained a life partner in return :)

By then, both the parties had moved to Sydney, Australia after getting their PR’s and had left asking me to give the idea a serious thought and that “there is no better time to fulfill your dream than now!!!!”. And after all there was that ever open and lucrative proposal of… “Beer by the opera house!!!” that my friend reminded me umpteen times before leaving.

By this time the idea had again germinated a few more leaves and was starting to grow. But, that nagging feeling of leaving this cushioned life was also constantly with me. I didn’t want to let go of my achievements in corporate world in India and start afresh, and also since I was married now, it was no longer only my decision. There was the second angle of my “better” half also agreeing to my “absurd” idea (that’s what all called it when I shared it with my family and friends) of starting afresh immediately after marriage and leaving the good ‘ol corporate job and position.

Fast forward to 2016…….. Now or Never!!

After lot of “serious” discussions between me and my better half over the span of 2016 in our favorite pub near our house (such discussions need the company of few chilled beers to get your mind to think out of the ordinary… or to say out of the normal bullshit), in the end 2016 we both decided to give it a shot……………….

It was now or never!!!!!!

And that was the re-birth of Aussie dream.

Once again the saying “Man proposes, God Disposes” started dancing in front of me (dancing… coz it was after a few beers, as usual, that we had decided to take the plunge, so it seemed to be dancing in front of me…lol).

And so finally in 2017……..The journey begins..........

What happened post that was a series of talks again with our parents, to get their agreements to the same and listening to the same argument from them what had been buzzing in my mind all along… “Why leave a settled life for a life in a new country at this age and position in your life??” The only answer I gave was “To fulfill a dream… coz we have only one life!!!” (quite a sappy dialogue but it did sum it up!). By this time my mother was also used to the idea of me living away from her and finally she gave relented and agreed for us to move to Aussieland. My wife’s mother, who also had lost her husband long back, also reluctantly agreed to the idea.

The next step was to break the idea to few of my very close friends. Some took it very positively (to my surprise!), some cautioned me, some abused me, and one was like…

“Whatever dude!! Atleast we will have a place to stay in Australia when we come there… make sure you buy a house with at least 3 bedrooms to accommodate us too and have the liquor stocked, rest we will manage!!” Hahahaha

Best friends!!!!!!

Armed with a lot of information from my friends already in Sydney now…. Loooooootttt of long phone calls and chats to take down the minutest of details (from the rentals, to the train ticket cost, to best areas to stay in, to the cost of living including the cost of “moong daal”, which was my favorite daal- pulses), we commenced the application process with the help of one of the consultants in Pune with a target to move to Australia (Sydney… maybe…. Melbourne… maybe) in early 2018. Yessss, that was another confusion going on in our minds…. Sydney or Melbourne, which we were dealing with …. one of the many others but also maybe one of the important ones! (More on how we overcame that in the upcoming posts!!!)

And thus our journey to Aussieland finally began to take shape in early 2017… with some shaky thoughts, some very strong determinations and some new dreams and vision of a better life ahead of us!!!!! But what we didn’t know that what followed would be an interesting series of events leading up to our move to Australia!!!!

Up ahead.... the struggles of the PR process, managing things at the job, the dramas that preceeded the actual departure and welcome to Australia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!