Curry Bashing blues

It is late. I am riding the train back to the suburbs of Sydney. I have fallen asleep under my Australian hat. A station attendant awakens me. They really do still have them! When a train calls at a station, the attendant steps out of a room to blow a whistle and wave the all clear flag. I am told that there has been a stabbing a few stations ahead. A stabbing? Really, people still stab each other? Well, when guns aren’t legal, you stab. Bottom line is that the train will not continue its journey. I step into the night to board a bus with a rather large number of my people (South Asians). They are students working the night shift in factories, mostly as a second job. This night is endless.

The bus is trying to finish the train’s job. As it meanders through city streets my half-asleep ears pick up the chatter of my people. There is a fear amongst them or is it empathy for their fellow students.

Curry Bashing

The next day my relatives fill in the gaps. Indian Students over the last few years have been punching bags for Aussies looking for a good time. Why Indians? Well, we are considered a soft target because we don’t retaliate or complain to the authorities for fear of jeopardising future plans of residency. The Australian government initially dismissed the attacks as random incidents. Really! Why does it have a catchy name like Curry Bashing then?

These stories eventually made their way back home. Now, these aren’t stories of some average college hazing. This is heavy stuff like getting stabbed in the neck with a screwdriver or getting your arm broken. What parents would send their little ladlas far away from home to get the daylight beat out of them? Please note that a foreign student pays about $30,000 AUD a year, which is about three times as much as local students. It turns out a fair number of parents didn’t send their kids to Australia.

Now, this drop of foreign students, to the tune of 70 million AUD, has caught the attention of the Australian government! The Government is now moving pretty fast to provide security for its little cash cows (pun intended).

Planking

The government can provide security, but can’t really protect our ladlas from everything. The topic du jour is Planking. What is Planking, you ask?  Well, it really is like a yoga pose. You get on all fours, except you do it in random places. It really is one of those college drunken activities. A student tried to plank on the railing of a balcony the other day. His feet were on the railing and he was extended out. Yes, out, as in suspended in air a couple of stories above ground.  Gravity won!  It always does!

A few years ago, I would have called it natural selection. But you see I am a father now. My child will be in college too some day. He will have his version of planking. Yes, I am considering home schooling the boy.