Keep Walking!

Top Stories, First! Story #1. An Indian Doctor who came to SouthAustralia to work as Govt. Practitioner returned back home afterstaying here for less than a week. Reason, 'for a 24 by 7 on-call-dutythe salary paid is far far less than a waiter in a hotel'. Story #2.There was a head-on crash near Port Adelaide where both the driverswho drove their cars are in critical condition.. One of them is of 14years age (Who drove the car!). There were 4 separate accidents in thepast 6 days where the drivers age are 14, 15 and 17! Story #3. Thereis a growing obesity problem in school going children. Their parentsare blamed for not feeding with nutritious breakfast in themorning..which lead the kids to rely on junk foods causing overweight!! (Didn't I say in my earlier mails - that all the things arehuge here, including people..I don't understand this..we eat lot ofrice etc..But, here most of them are of overweight!!)

Just now, I am coming from Boneython Hall where the Vice Chancellor's Welcome session was held. The VC welcomed and spoke about the great students of Adelaide Uni. Adelaide Uni is the 3rd oldest in Australia and oldest in South Australia (3 Nobel Prize winners and about 50 Rhodes Scholars..!). Followed by which, an Alumni of the Uni who is working in the animation industry eloborated his experiences and life impact at the Adelaide Uni!

I became a member in South Australia library - where I am entitled to take 30 items including books, videos, dvds. I read a book "Ricky Ponting's world cup Diary" (2004 , South Africa). I particularly, remember one story, he had mentioned. The first match for Australians in the world cup, against pakistan - metculous planning done, they want to make an impressive , explosive start to their campaign..which should mean "Aussies mean business". But.. the biggest let down happened in the morning.. Shane Warne is banned for taking drugs!.. The match begins.. Australia were down by 86/4! Ricky joins Andy.. (Andrew Symonds" ..who is really playing well.. After every four or good scoring shot..Ricky would walk to Andy and say "concentrate on the next ball..mate". After putting Australia beyond the 300 mark ..with a mammoth 143*, Andy returns to the Pavilion greeted by his happy team ..Ricky goes to him and give a pat in the back and asks "Which one w...

For the initial days, when we walk in the road, we look at the personin the road and used to say 'hey, he's looking like brett lee..' -'damn..god..he is exactly like gilchrist' like that.. cricketcrazy..(sadly, Pakis let down in the VB series, otherwise, AdelaideOval would've hosted the 3rd final with Australia..!). Australians arevery nice.. though I have to sharpen my listening skills a bit (I amwatching almost all the serials possible at home, X Factor, Who wantsto be a Millionaire, Crime Scene Investigation etc etc..apart from'daily a movie'). When I said I am from South India, theysympathetically ask, " Whether your areas hit by Tsunami, any of yourfriends or relatives were the victims...". They listen to you withutmost care. They are friendly and straight in their talk (Nobacktalk!). Soccer is followed , Rugby and Cricket take a back seat(Though, some Australians expressed "Oh India, Cricket.. , Sachin..")

I saw an advertisement campaign while roaming at Sydney Airport. It said like this, "Hillary had Tenzing" explaining how difficult it would've been for Hillary to scale the peaks of Everest, without the help of Tenzing who gave vital information, local knowledge etc. In the same way, you would a need a very effective partner in your vital missions. It ends with a punchline "Who do you have?". Very thought provoking. I used to think, I am good at everything and believe in doing all the things myself. I found satisfaction in doing a job myself rather than leaving it to others. I never wanted to delegate work to anyone. I had changed this mindset a few years ago in my workplace. It was an amazing change. From then onwards, I could find and entrust jobs to the persons who could excel in his own department, better than me. So, Going to find a home? Find a broker, tell your specifications, he will find a good house! Investing, Travelling why .. education..? So, it is ...

When I arrived in Bangalore in 2000, when everyone asked my name, I said Thirumurugan – It was hard to pronounce for them, they stripped off the 'Thiru' (respectable title in Tamil). Now, here they find it hard to pronounce every part of full name PONNUSAMY Thirumurugan. Now, I am really wondering what name should I keep.. Thiru (Here, they ask TRUE?!) or Samy.(they will make Sam out of that). or Murugan (Morgan). I don't know really!

February 12 was the day we moved into our new home. Within an hour, we started cooking.. Obviously, Andy was screaming and excited about our cooking..(he was shouting.."we are cooking..we are cooking."). Stop, Who is Andy? Since, there are two Anands, we named the IDP Anand as Andy! We said to him Andrew Symonds in the Australian Team is called 'Andy'. He finally convinced and agreed with us - after we told Andrew Groove who is regarded as the father of the silicon valley is also nicknamed 'Andy'! Ganesh and the other Anand were also excited about cooking.. I had been cooking so long.. so I let the guys enjoy their experience by just telling what to do.. We cooked Chapati, cooked chicken (ready to eat) in the oven. We prepared Veg. Biriyani (Thanks for your IDP booklet, it helped..then..we referred to the Anand's (not Andy!) sister's notebook also!). It came perfect, except the salt. It was too less. (later, I came to know that the sugar and salt, what...

Now the time is 5:40 PM (afternoon), it is raining outside, after a hot yesterday! Just, for the record, this is the coolest summer - the Australians face after a 50 years time! So, let us begin the journey further... Though I am exploring the unknown birds, plants, flowers of Australia everyday, I came across the origin of the word Australia in a book. "Tera Australis Incognito" was the name of this land, which actually meant "Unknown Southern Land!". There is so much to explore here, Australians love this (Mountaineering, Bushwalking..etc..) as a popular activity.

When we go for hunting the houses, we used to travel a lot. Anand used to tell me 2 dollars that is 70 rupees ..we have to spend!I would tell him, forget the Indian Rupees for the timebeing..otherwise, you wont get sleep at night..Here are the price listif you like, the NOKIA mobile 1100 costs you AUD$100 (still cheapernew NOKIA also you can get for $50 with connection)..and a used DVDplayer will come at the price of AUD$60.. you can get a (used one,old) car for just AUD$1000..can you buy it in India with 30000 rupees?

When I was a child of 10 years old, it is fun to visit my village - I will be waiting for summer holidays to go and listen to our Grandma's stories at the night. Everyday, we used to live in a dreamy world full of Princes - who has to bring some medicine crossing seven hills and seven oceans, Birds , that could speak , Gods, Demons and Ghosts..Beautiful Princess..If I have some little of creative ideas, vivid imagination.. my Grandma deserves the credit, who had patience to tell the same story , sometimes even thrice! I told her, I am going to Australia - obviously she didn't know that I may have to cross seven seas to go there! But, she blessed me, wherever I go, I will come with success and gave 201 rupees as gift (How precious it is!) I took blessings from her. There are certain occasions in life, we cannot capture with camera, video or any other electronic gadgets..they have to felt in heart.. This is such one! I pray that she will welcome me, when I come home!

I had slept for nearly 10 hours at the first night. I had somedizziness (may be due to cold weather..cool winds.. for first 2 days..then it was OK! Just in front of our hostel a huge ground, tenniscourts were there, I used to walk around seeing some people playsoccer, rugby, cricket etc. I tried my hand in tennis later!Everything is huge and big here, Eucalyptus tree for instance.. andall the food is packed. You can find fresh cut vegetables, ready toeat food , neatly packed. It is easy to cook food here, bring and keepin Microwave Oven and your food is ready in 10 minutes.

At Mumbai It was a long wait for the bus, which transferred us to the International terminal. As I had waited for my baggage check to Qantas – I had already shortlisted in my mind how to convince them or what to throw off if they are stubborn. Before that, a lady was also experiencing the same excess baggage problem – and she opened up all to check again to transfer some to cabin baggage. An young Australian came up to me and took up my passport and asked 'are you going for study' to which I said 'Yes'. Apart from these, never been asked any questions – may be because of my student visa, I think! To my relief, my baggage weighed just 37.5 kg here (It showed 37.5 in exact at Sydney also - time to replace weighing machines at Bangalore airport!), and the cabin baggage weighed 6 kg (I didn't weigh at Bangalore). Qantas Flight It was not big, but really very huge - a Boeing 747! I didn't get a window seat, this time – which I desperately wanted to see the sunset / s...

The First Flight For a Bangalore to Mumbai Indian Airlines journey, I was there in the airport 2 hours early (The flight was delayed by another 1 hour, after that ;-)). Mainly, I didn't want to disappoint all of my friends who came to Airport to see me off (that to on a Wednesday!). I wanted to spend some time with all of them – most importantly to convince my father, mother and sister who already looked dull and down (I will bring them here and show this all, one day!). Actually, my parents were surprised to see – I have got so many friends! So, after spending all the 3 hours, I sent all of them off and went in – I tried to calm down myself, but couldn't. When I went to weigh my luggage, I was a bit more nervous – I had never checked the weight before! (I was damn sure that, I had nothing to match for 40 Kg... unexpectedly (?!!), it showed 41.5 kg in total – they security looked at me and said – No Problem, Chalo! I was already thinking what might happen when I board Qantas at...

"You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to losesight of the shore" "You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore" This quote aptly summarizes the feelings what I am undergoing right now. The time is here 8.00 pm, but the sun has not set yet! Like this late sunset, I wonder each and every thing I come across daily. Here's how I started from Bangalore. There is just a week for my departure date. So many things to do. I planned to visit Anna University, Chennai to thank my professors, wanted to visit Mysore to spend some time with my friends. Meanwhile, I had to be there in my home for Grahapravesham, to be held on 31st of Jan – which I can not avoid at any cost. So, I booked my tickets and rushed to my home. I had to arrange Foreign Exchange, purchase food items, cooking utensils etc on 1st of February! My parents were happy for that I am going to study as per my wish and worried at the same time about t...