Being born and brought up in India, we are used to a particular quality of service, whether it is in the government offices or private organisations like banks etc. We know that if we have to get our work done in any of the government offices, we have to “know” the right person or have to use the other "influencer" (I am sure you know what I am talking about) to get things done, else we would work at the mercy of the officer in-charge. The services in the private organisation are definitely better off than government offices, with less requirement of influencers, though “knowing” the right person still helps. Also, getting an accommodation is not that huge a task. You can rent a flat in any city of India with no requirements of documentation to prove your worthiness as a good tenant, apart from maybe a police verification from the local police station, which is also more of a formality. All you need is to get hold of a “influential” local real estate agent and he would get you the house of your choice from the ones available on the market, in return for a commission for his services… which he is more concerned about. You would pay the security deposit and the house is yours to live in.
Well… Most of the above was not applicable to Australia, as we got to know in the coming fortnight!!
WEEK 1:
The immediate tasks to be completed was getting my partner’s bank account activated at the nearest bank branch (we had already opened the bank account online), getting both of us registered with Medicare to avail medical services (As permanent residents, we were covered in the government’s Medicare scheme, which provided us with free medical care for day to day illnesses) and most important of all, finalising the accommodation for my partner to stay in for the next 3 months. Getting her accustomed to the city and the public transport and if possible, starting the job search were also on agenda.
The next morning over breakfast, we were planning the day. We decided to first and foremost get her bank account activated at the nearest branch and apply for a debit card, so that we could access the funds and then maybe roam around the area to get some idea of where things were like pharmacy, eateries etc. since last night everything was closed.
We searched for the nearest branch of the bank we had opened our account with and found that it was near about 2 kilometers from where we were staying. It was in a market area near the main metro station for the suburb where we were staying. The thought of getting the feel of a market in Melbourne excited us. So, post breakfast, we headed to the nearest tram station to catch the tram to the market where the branch was located.
Melbourne has both, trams that run within the city and cover a few suburbs nearby, as well as metro trains, which have a greater reach, like in Delhi and other cities of India. We had already purchased our Myki cards from the airport for using the public transport and had recharged it with some money for our travel.
PS: Myki are travel cards which can be used in all modes of public transport, but in Melbourne only. Sydney has its own version of these cards called Opal cards. Both are a convenient option as compared to purchasing ticket again and again for different modes of pubic transport.
So, we caught the tram going towards the metro station (thanks to google maps which gave us all the information we needed) and within next 15 minutes we were at the metro station. The metro station had a hustling bustling market place with all kinds of shops around, very much like any market place in India. We were definitely pleased to see many people around us for the first time in Melbourne. My partner was more elated than me, able to see shops where some shopping could be done... lol!
It felt like we were finally back within humanity... Yayyy!!
It was a sunny day. We found our way to the bank branch, again with the help of google maps. When we entered the branch, we were welcomed by a branch customer service representative, who asked the purpose of our visit and directed us to wait in the plush waiting area while she arranged for someone to help us with the account activation. From the time the service executive arrived to the time we left the branch post activating my partner’s account was flat 15 minutes. We were happy to see that the customer service was as good in the banks here, as it was back in India, though the branches were not that plush as they were here.
So, the first experience was a good one. We were promised the card will reach us in next 3 working days. We were happy!! :-)
Since we got free pretty early, contrary to our expectation, we decided to see if we could also get the second task completed today itself i.e. our Medicare enrolment. We had to go to what’s called a “Centrelink” office for the purpose of getting ourselves registered. It was a government office from where all the services offered by government for welfare of the citizens were looked after. We searched for the nearest centrelink office on google maps and found that the nearest office was just a kilometre from where we were standing. Since we were already carrying all the relevant papers with us, we decided to walk down to the office (we were getting health conscious.... Australian vibe was catching up with us.. lol) and try our luck if we could get the registration done today. We knew that 90% chance was that we may not be able to get it done today and will have to come back again. But then, there was no harm in trying. We were anyways used to recurring visits to the government offices back in India. Melbourne could not be worse. Though we had heard that influences were not required here in Australia, even in government offices, it was time to test the theory.
As we reached the centrelink office, we saw a clean and well presented building with the sign clearly mentioning “Centrelink” at the entrance. We were impressed!!
But, what we got to see when we entered the office was something we had never expected!!
It was a plush, fully carpeted and a well lit office, which was centrally heated. It was smelling of a soothing room freshener. The main customer service area was a huge hall, which had small counters, with each counter manned by an immaculately dressed person with the desktop computer for data entry etc. On one extreme side were lot of additional desktop computers, the use of which we came to know later. They were also being taken care of by an immaculately dressed lady. There were already a few people in the office, all of whom were standing in a nice queue… wow.. something which is a rare sight in India!! They were waiting to be served by the customer service representatives, 3 in number, who were standing with ipads in their hands…. Hmmmm!! It took us a minute to digest what we were seeing. Seemed like someone was trying to play with our minds.
“This could not be a government office??” we said to each other.
We had never seen a government office back in India so well maintained and managed. All we were used to was dirty offices, walls painted with spits, smell of things unknown and shouting and screaming people, heckling with the officers to get their work done.
The customer representatives, one of whom was a man around 60 years of age, were politely asking each person’s requirement and directed them to concerned person behind the desks, or handing out relevant forms to be filled up. There was only a hush hush sound in the office. It was quite unbelievable for both of us. We were not used to this much courtesy and silence in government offices. It felt weird....
As our turn came, we were greeted with a huge smile by the lady serving us. We requested for registration under the Medicare services for both of us. After a few questions, she handed us the relevant forms and asked us to fill it up and return it to her and wait for our turn to be served. In the meantime, we could help ourselves to some tea or coffee from the vending machine lying in one corner…….
Really… are you serious??????? Government office offering “poor” citizens tea or coffee at their expense.
This was getting too much now!!! Our disbelief was beyond normal comprehension. But there was more to come.
I filled up the forms and handed it back to the smiling lady, who took it from me and asked us to wait over a cuppa. We happily obliged her and I went to fetch a cuppa for both of us.
Even before we could finish the cuppa, we were asked to approach a service desk. The lady there too greeted us smilingly and started the process. During the process she realized we had not created our online accounts within the government website. So she asked us to go over to the desktops in the other corner and ask the lady there to help us with creating one for both of us. She would guide us in creation of the account.
An assisted service within a government office????
It now felt like a dream…. An unrealistic, unheard of dream!!
As we completed the registration with the help of the lady there, we were already convinced that we had made the right decision of coming to Melbourne, unlike last night’s experience. She sat through with us to get the registration done.... step by step. Incredible...
Only my teachers in school had done so, years back!!!!!!! It was unbelievable!!
Post creation of the online account, we headed back to our counter and the whole process of registration took another 10 minutes. We were handed over our acknowledgements and told to wait for the next 3 working days to get our Medicare cards at our address. And that was it!!! We were done!!!! The lady behind apologized for any delay and thanked us for coming!!!
I thought… Come on lady!!!!!
The amount of time in which you have completed the whole damn process, that’s the time we take just to get through the maze of rooms to get to the right room or counter and get the attention of the officer to get the process started. Don’t embarrass us any further!!
While leaving the office, the customer service representatives also wished us goodbye.
It was like a hallucination you have after taking a drag of marijuana, when you feel that everything around you is nice and peaceful!! But damn it… this was for real.. without any Marijuana!!I I guessed the room freshener had some marijuana in it for sure because of which the people here were so calm and peaceful. This could actually be a good idea!! ;-)
So for the second time during the day we were in and out of the office within half hour, one of which was a government office. It was a record of sorts for us! And also, we still had so much time left on our hands to get by the rest of the day.
Gosh! This is going to be tough getting used to this kind of service and the surplus time in hand, we thought!
We would need to find ways to use it more productively, where as in India, we were always short of it. We had hit a pay dirt!!! This was going to be an asset for us in the future... Yesss!
Well, we headed back to the market area and hung around there for a while before having our lunch and heading back to the B&B. We spent the rest of the day in the park near the B&B, enjoying the natural beauty, getting some sun and planning the days ahead.
The next few days were a mix of roaming around in the city area and also looking at various properties for my partner to stay in. There were lot of options of sharing the house with flat mates, which would be cheaper, but did not afford a lot of privacy. We were on a look out for a studio apartment, to provide my partner with some privacy along with being cheap and reasonable. The search led us to a lot of suburbs of Melbourne and also gave us lot of experience of using the public transport. The experience was good, but exhausting. I had not travelled that much in a public transport from the time I had graduated out of college. :-(
All the three modes of public transport i.e. buses, trams and metro trains were very well organized and coordinated. People knew the meaning of a queue. It was not an alien concept not known to humankind, like back in India.
Also, the concept of “After you”, very famous in one of the cities of India i.e. Lucknow, could be seen all around here, with people giving way to each other in public areas and transport.
It was another surprise for us.
The transport was always on time, even the buses, thanks to the dedicated lanes for it on roads which nobody could use, expect by paying a hefty fine. Further, there were recharge machines all over the city to recharge the Myki cards. We were quite impressed and felt happy and satisfied using the public transport.
Another interesting thing we noticed during our excursions was the use of words "sorry" and "thank you". These were two words without which no sentence was complete in Australia... pretty much like they were the national words of Australia!!! :-) Being a Punjabi, the first thing that came to my mind were the profanities Punjabi people use back in India, without which no sentence was complete there... lol!! so.. kind of .. they were the profanities of Australia... the good one though!! (you got to listen to the bad one... they are very emotive and hilarious... but you know.. can't describe them here)
Thankfully, after a few days of rigorous search and roaming about in a lot of suburbs of Melbourne, we were able to identify a studio apartment near the city area, which was within our budget and also very accessible to the city, as that was where all the corporate offices were and had hustle bustle all day long. But, as per the “rules”, we could not rent it out outright as we didn’t have a rental history in the country, nor a current income stream which would guarantee the rental payments. We were in a fix!! It was not as easy here as it was in India, where you could just walk in into a real estate agent’s office and walk out with the flat keys. There were “strict guidelines” here for renting a accommodation. Another new thing for us. We had never heard of “guidelines” for renting a house, but then this was Australia for you. Rules and regulation for everything.
We turned back to “Googleman” for help, our savior in Melbourne. Fortunately, he had some contacts with the real estate agent who was managing the apartment (And that’s why the name “Googleman”, he knows a lot of people here... cheers to you mate!!), and was able to convince him to rent out the flat to us.
Finally, after signing heaps of documents and paying the upfront security deposit, the flat was ours. Felt like they wanted to make sure we didn’t run away with the flat!!! But, at the end this one was also in the bag!
Later we would come to know that Australia is the land of “Rules and Regulations”, like any other western counterparts. You could not survive here without following the rules (more on that in the subsequent posts).
During that period we also received both, the debit card for my partner from the bank and the medicare cards for both of us from the centrelink office… within exactly 3 days!!! It was astonishing!! More so for the efficiency of the government agency, because private banks back in India had also got very efficient lately. We were being hit with surprises day after day.
What we needed to be do next was to get the apartment all set up for my partner and then eventually move into it before I left for India.
Our first week in Melbourne was over!!!
WEEK 2:
The next week was spent mostly in setting up the apartment and buying all the necessary stuff. Mentally in our minds, the countdown had also started. Countdown to my flight back to India and my partner’s three month of journey alone in this city, looking for a job and somehow passing the time.
We visited a few tourist landmarks around the city like Federation Square, the Melbourne Art Exhibition Centre, Yarra River side and The Shrine of Remembrance in our free time. There was still a lot to go through, specially the beaches around the city and iconic MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), which we planned to visit when I would return to Melbourne.
But most of the time the thought was still very much in the back of our minds, that just a few days were left now for my stay in Melbourne!!!
Once we had set up the apartment, we vacated the B&B and moved into it. Living near the city was much more interesting, with a lot of markets and eateries all around, which were open till late in the night, allowing us some more time to go out and enjoy.
But what we found the most surprising was that the city area was mostly full of Asian people and sadly it felt like we were not in Australia anymore. Imagine... after making so much effort of coming to Australia, you still don't feel like being there!!!!!!! It felt more like being in a major city of Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China or any other Asian city. The streets were lined with a lot of Asian restaurants, mostly Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean cuisine and some Indian restaurants too. We hardly saw anything which had an Australian touch to it.
Even the Australian souvenir shops were being run by Asians... lol!!!
The influx of migrants from all the Asian countries had grown in the last few years, and that was very evident in the city. We saw a lot of Indian faces also in the crowd and an occasional person would pass a smile looking at us. Felt good to be acknowledged by our own.
As the days passed by and we settled in the new apartment, it was time to leave Melbourne for the time being. My flight back to India was just a day away now. Once again the emotions were high. The fear in the mind was growing. Lot of questions were resurfacing again…
Would she be able to manage things alone in a new country??
Would she be safe here all alone by herself??
How would she manage the loneliness here??
Would she get a job to keep her busy and get some money in??
And last but not the least, the time difference!!!!! India was 4.5 hours behind Melbourne at that time. How would we manage the same?? Her day would finish before I reach back home from office. When would we be able to talk??
Though we had been pondering upon these questions in the build up to the weekend flight, no concrete plan had emerged till now. Everything was going to be so new for both of us. We had to take each day as it comes and pray for the best. I requested Googleman to stay in touch with my partner and be her "go to" person during this period. He happily agreed, as always!! (You were and still are a big help!)
My partner had gotten in touch with a few recruitment consultants also during the week, but nothing was moving as of now. So we could see that Job was also something which would take time to happen.
With nothing in sight as of now, I comforted her with whatever encouraging words I had in my dictionary and we planned to stay in touch on a daily basis at a specific time in the day to take stock and uphold each other’s confidence. With that thought we slept through my last night in Melbourne.
The next day was mostly about packing up my stuff. I had to leave for the airport soon. We didn’t say much to each other during the day. It was a quite conversation we were having between us. Both of us looking at the other for answers to things we didn’t have answers for.
When the time to leave for the airport arrived, my partner broke down for one last time. I couldn’t control my emotions too. It was not the best of the moments in this whole journey!!!! As I sat in the cab, our eyes met and I for sure knew that we were trying to comfort each other that things will be ok, though we both didn’t know how!!! The cab left and I kept looking at the rear view mirror to find her standing there, till the car was out of sight.
This was it!!! The start of another important step in our Aussie journey!! My partner’s biggest test of her life!!
I don’t count myself in it because I would be in the safe comfort zone of my house back in Pune, with all the luxuries. She was the hero of the moment!! Something in me told me that my mountain girl will come out with flying colours....
We bid our final goodbyes from the flight cabin and the flight took off…….. We both were on our own now!!
What happened in the following three months… were we able to survive the three months of separation, was she able to cope up with the loneliness in Melbourne, did she get a job, how was the forced bachelorhood for both of us…. All that and much more in the upcoming posts with many more exciting insight and experiences which shaped our journey into the “Aussieland”. So read on guys…….