Postcard from Sydney – 1

We are on a holiday in, what is described as, one of the most beautiful and livable parts of the world. Even within the first few days here, it is quite evident that this is, indeed, true.

Our hosts at Sydney, Shivakumar and Malini live in Pemulwuy, an elegant neighborhood. Their home, Avani, overlooks the vast Grey Box Woodland Reserve. It is a quiet neighborhood, the only noise coming from the birds, many of them quite exotic for us but commonplace here. We saw cockatoos, lorikeets, and the noisy magpies. We could only hear the bell birds (their calls sound like bells). We await the sighting of the kookaburra.

We seem to have managed the jet lag quite well, thanks to some tips from our son, Siddharth, who also lives in Sydney – he is doing his PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Sydney.

We received a 5-star welcome at Avani. A tray with flowers and chocolates was placed on our bed. A beautiful card signed by Shivakumar and Malini welcomed us. We occupied one of the bedrooms in the first floor. The wall cabinets in the room had been emptied for us.

Shivakumar works at a senior position in LinkedIn and Malini is a multi-talented artist. Their home is very tastefully decorated – brass urns and antique-looking vessels are placed among leafy plants in large ceramic planters. Several brass and bronze vessels that reminded me of my grandmother’s home in Thrissur, Kerala, were placed on teak wood shelves. The walls display art created by Malini. Their home split across two levels is very warm and inviting.

For me, a vacation is not just sight seeing. It is also being able to get an idea of the daily life, trying to live life like a local resident and enrich my perspectives. I have always held that travel is a very powerful form of education. To me, education is not just academics, it is broadening of our horizon, being more inclusive in our thinking, and continuously enriching our life perspectives. To me, a well educated person and a well traveled person are at par.

Conversations hold the key to open doors and I love opportunities to make conversations. With the vintage Bollywood singer, Kishore Kumar’s lilting melodies playing on the radio, the dining area at Avani became the activity center. Surrounding the large dining table, we had a lot of catch-up conversations. We see the conversations continuing for the entire length of our stay.

We planned to dine out in the evening. While Shivakumar and Malini were getting ready, Sid and us were at the porch discussing his life at Sydney. He seems to be enjoying both his professional and personal life at Sydney. At work, he is doing extremely well. He has won another prestigious award recently that takes him to the UK for about 3 months next year. He is part of the very prestigious team, Frontier. He loves Sydney as a city. The city has an international profile and plenty to do.

We went on a long drive to have dinner at a pizzeria. Dorothy and Angelo who run the pizzeria are very close to Shivakumar and Malini. The thin-crust pizzas were very delicious. Towards the end, Dorothy, who is from Sicily, Italy, also joined us at the dinner table sharing some of her family events and happenings – more conversations.

It was a day well spent.

On Day 2, we headed in the morning to the Helensburg Sri Venkateswara Temple. It is a large temple, managed largely by Indian professionals who migrated to Australia in the 70s. We saw a lot of Indian families there.

One of the things that I have observed is that when we are out of India, we expand in our thinking. It does not matter from which part of India, we belong. We just mingle as one large Indian community. I have seen this at Bangkok, at the Silom temple and at Singapore in the Murugan Temple. I have seen this at the Florida Gurudwara (Sikh place of worship) and at the Akshardham Temple in the UK. It is fascinating to see that when we are abroad, we see ourselves as one, where our diverse cultures, cuisines, languages, rituals and looks are seen as adding to our collective richness. I wish we could adopt a similar attitude when in India. Of course, I do see the young in India rising  above their local profile and becoming a part of the large melting pot that is India.

We drove in Shivakumar’s Subaru SUV through to the Bald Hill lookout. The lookout is really an undulating stretch of grass at an altitude from where we could get a sweeping view of the ocean, the beach and the curving Sea Cliff Bridge. We passed through narrow streets and elegant homes. We passed cars with boats attached as trailers and columns of Harley Davidson riders. We passed cyclists in fluorescent outfits. It is quite evident that Australia is a great outdoors country.

We were in no particular hurry and spent a lot of time at the Bald Hill lookout. I just love the ocean. I can spend endless hours just watching the water. Not sure if it happens to others but I go into contemplation when I am watching the water, the waves crashing into the rocks and the families enjoying the sun and the beach. I happen to think in the language of metaphors. When I watch the water and everything around it, so many metaphors come to my mind.

On the way, we stopped at a small cafe, Coledale RSL, located on the main street in a very green neighborhood. We sat on wooden benches under large umbrellas and ordered our drinks. We must have easily spent a couple of hours there. It was time for more conversations. I realized that, with time, the conversations were going deeper.

We visited the Symbio National Park. My wife, Jyothi, had wanted to see kangaroos from close quarters during this visit. At this Park, it was a problem of plenty for her. She got a chance to feed them. One couldn’t have got closer to them than this. We also watched the Koala Show, spotted cockatoos, meerkats, Red Panda,  a solitary peacock, and several other animals and birds at the Park.

Malini is an accomplished singer. Trained in the Carnatic tradition for over 7 years, she moved to light music and later to film songs. At Sydney, she performs in the karaoke format in small gatherings with family and friends. At home, they have professional equipment such as studio quality microphones, speakers and sound editing console. After reaching home from the Symbio National Park, Shivakumar cooked some quick dinner. Post dinner, we settled down to about 2 hours of Malini’s singing in their Living Room while Shivakumar was at the console. She sang Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi and Malayalam songs. Some of my favorites that Malini sang were Rim Jhim Giray Saawan (Manzil movie), Chalo Tumko Lekar (Jism movie), Chikni Chameli (Agneepath movie), O Sajnaa (Parakh movie), Mai Ree (Dastak movie) and and Vaseegara (Minnale movie – Tamil), and Shalabhamai (Kallimannu movie – Malayalam). Watch Malini singing Mere Dholna (Bhool Bhulaiyaan movie) in this YouTube video : https://youtu.be/d6f3Fifi8yI.

I wonder how many people traveling to Sydney would be blessed to experience the city the way we are experiencing it. Our experience goes beyond the physical features of the city. Travel is all about experiences. I was thinking that while billions of visitors have been to Sydney and may have written about their travels, each one offers a different perspective. My Sydney travel promises to be unique in its flavor and experience.

It has been just 3 days in Sydney but it seems like a long time – so much seems to have been packed into each hour, yet we are enjoying things at our own pace.

Isn’t this what a vacation is all about?

Let’s stay connected. There’s much more to come.

Coming up next: our visit to the majestic Blue Mountains, our leisurely walk through the quaint Leura town, my whistling on the karaoke format at home…and much more.

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