Am I Aussie enough... or does the Indian linger?

After 2 years as a "Permanent Resident" in Sydney, I am now eligible to apply for my Australian citizenship if I wish to, which for all practical reasons, is a wonderful thing. The waiting period has now been extended to four years. I was among the lucky few who made it to the finishing line just before the rules were changed.

Am I Aussie enough... to warrant a citizenship? My instinct says 'No'.

My Indian roots are firmly entrenched like blood within my system. I think Indian, I talk Indian, I walk Indian, and I feel Indian. I cannot and would never change that fact.

I decided not to visit India for the first two years because I wanted to give this a good shot. The idea was to have an open mind, explore Australia and eventually settle down here if I like it enough. It was tougher than I thought.

Come to think of it, it was a crazy move! I hadn’t been to Sydney at all when I first flew in and I didn’t know a soul. All I had was a maternal uncle (I wasn’t really in regular touch with him) who was kind enough to put me up for a couple of weeks.

I moved into a hostel soon. After that, it was my own journey with some help from my brother who lived in Perth at the time.

Settling down was the priority. I found a job and a house, which was the easy part. The harder bits were missing the mundane from back home: the local baniya store, regular haircut and beauty parlour, bhajiwala, fruitwala, the works. Oh no, these practicalities didn’t cross my mind for a second; I was too excited with the move.

It took me over one month to find decent fresh chillies. Fresh Indian green chillies are only available in Asian grocery stores occasionally, the only other option is frozen chillies from an Indian shop.

I didn’t ever think, will I miss the taste of green chillies, will I miss the sound of auto rickshaws, will I miss the saas-bahu TV shows, and will I miss the taken-for-granted luxury of home delivery?

And then, of course, I missed things like the roads, nooks and corners, the smell, the noise, the chatter.

Finally, extremely and an awful lot, I missed the people: my parents, friends, colleagues, extended acquaintances. So much so, that for 6 months, I couldn't make new friends because I still missed the ones I left behind.

However, Sydney has been wonderfully liberating and an eye-opener in many ways. Why and how, I will leave that for my next blog. Suffice to say with its similarities to Mumbai in terms of being multi-cultural, cosmopolitan and of course, the stunning water views, Sydney kept me going.

I have grown to love Sydney now, I must admit; however it hasn’t seeped into my system enough for me to embrace it yet.

I am told I would retain 50 per cent of my Indian citizenship if I do apply. I wouldn’t bet on the exact percentage of my feelings for each country at this point but I am pretty sure Australia hasn’t reached the 50 per cent mark yet.

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