For Melbourne in Melbourne with Melbourne
I am not very good at writing. Even if its IELTS Exam or literature reviews, I have always struggled with my writing skills and wonder how people can write so much and so beautiful.
So here I am sharing my experience in Melbourne and with Melbourne since last 4 months. I have tried to maintain the order of occurrence as and when they happened.
So this is how it started…
One fine morning Praveen (our coordinator) called me in his cabin saying he has selected me for the exchange program with the German university. Wow!! That was great news however it didn’t last for long as prerequisite was the passport details. So that how this chapter got over for me. Opportunity got shifted to one of my colleague. However Praveen called me and said that there is another opportunity waiting ahead for me. Opportunity to be associated with RMIT University Melbourne, this is how my journey for RMIT started.
Three of us from our class and total 18 from NID got selected for exchange. After a long struggle I managed to get my passport also. Everyday meeting with Catherine (International Program Coordinator, NID), mailing to Liam regarding the clarification and preparing for IELTS exam was the routine. We all faced too many uncertainties before reaching Melbourne. From IELTS, medical to VISA everything was uncertain. Visa also got delayed, but some how managed to get it before a day prior to the journey. So finally out of 18, 15 managed to get ourselves through this tough time.
7th July 2008 was our flight for Melbourne. Everything was set. My parents came to drop me till Pune station from where I took a bus to Mumbai. The fortnight halt was at Shweta’s sister’s place. Next morning we left to Chatrapati Shivaji terminus, we were doubtful about the road network and traffic jams but still managed to reach in time.
Finally after 3hours with all the security check-up and adieu to all friends and relatives, 11 AM we sat in the Singapore airlines flight.
This was my first International flying experience. As I always loved to see places I was very excited about this journey. The whole journey I kept looking at beautiful view out side the window into the indefinite blue with couple of glasses of wine.
Around 5.30 we landed Singapore Changi Airport. I was stunned to see the structure; architecture of Changi Airport is really amazing. We spent around three hours there on the airport, waiting for our next flight to Melbourne.
9.00 pm we boarded for Melbourne. The flight was full as compared to the previous flight. This time I couldn’t help sleeping through out the journey because it was dark outside.
8th July, morning 7.30 four of us landed Tullamarine Airport Melbourne. After a long security checkup, it took us more than 2 hours to come out of airport. Soumitri and Liam were there to pick us up.
I had met Liam in NID before coming to Melbourne, so it was easy to locate him in that crowd. However it was our first encounter with Soumitri; we had our formal introduction with him. At the first glance, I found him serious However it all went in vein when we had a real comfortable talk on the way to Nunnery. Soumitri dropped me and lalit to Nunnery, introduced us with the place and people and left as he was in a hurry.
‘Nunnery” guest house is located on Nicholson Street. The 150 year old building was a great experience for living. It was quite expensive for our standards but nicely maintained place, surely value for money. I really thank Liam for booking our stay in nunnery at first go, because that was our first impression about Melbourne and we all were very delighted to have such a wonderful welcome.
We were chilled and thrilled, hungry till afternoon receptionist suggested us to go to Bambi’s pizza. This was our first encounter with Melbourne food and was quite disappointing at first go, but sooner we managed to find some quite nice joints to satisfy our tastes.
Nunneries stay lasted for two weeks; meanwhile we were looking for different guesthouses, backpacker’s hostel and apartments. As nunnery was little expensive deal, we finally managed to find an affordable deal at Victoria hall accommodation a recently renovated guest hose. During these days I enjoyed self and group cooking experience, carrying differences but still together.
Liam has always supported us and helped us out in many things. From opening account in bank to the access card he was always there to guide us. I always had a close interaction with Liam regarding Mekhala’s case and trust me he had done best possible, what he can do for it. That was the time when I realized that he is not just a good guide but a very nice human being as well.
We were getting acquainted with the place, started knowing people around there culture and living style. It was quite fascinating to see what we use to hear about foreign countries and I found it convincing. The discipline and management is just in the blood of these people.
A day at Soumitri’s home was an unforgettable experience with in this span. It was Sunday when Soumitri called us for lunch at Chauvel Street. We took Sunday special met card which is of 2$ 80, an amazing deal to see Melbourne zone1 and 2.
Walking through the lanes of beautiful bungalows with sloping roofs, it gave me a feeling of my dream place. I always wanted to have my own house in exactly similar neighborhood. Home made food, adrak ki chai, besan ke laddu and cricket with Iyan made our day.
Work itself started on 21st July. Soumitri showed some of his work and gave us a brief idea about his project. I got introduced to ben for the first time here. Benjamin creek second year student of Industrial design and my project partner in diabetes project and now one of my good friends in Melbourne. Over the time I got to know more and more about ben. He is a disciplined, well organized guy. He was very helpful and supportive through out the tenure.
When Soumitri introduced me to the project, I was quite relaxed to see that the brief was not drastically different to what I had been expecting. I had previous experience of working on service design, which helped me to understand the depth of the subject. Soumitri has introduced many different ways of research techniques, information collection and paper prototyping, which I never used before. In this way it was a great learning experience.
Through out the period, I really enjoyed working on the project, developing service, visualizing scenarios and making prototypes. I think more than research class I enjoyed the major project.
Confusions were always there in mind. About the work I am doing, which books to read, where to collect the information, whom to talk and discuss. The background from which I came, we were taught in a different manner. The way to look at things as problem solving slowly got washed out with rigorous discussion with Soumitri.
Social Innovation was a new term for me. Even though I was very much aware ofthe meaning of it, but was unaware of its implication in terms of design. After looking at Soumitri’s work I understood the depth of it but still I am not sure whether I am working on those lines or not .I is still struggling to understand the essence of the subject. Hoping the end results will be the quit satisfying and up to the expectations.
Thursday research class is something which always goes above my head. Methodologies, reading books, discussing writers my god this is not my cup of tea. After finishing the class we used to get so zapped, that people use to say “oh today is Thursday”. I have always been confused in research class through out the semester.
Exploring Melbourne is quite an exciting task. Melbourne museum, Federation Square, Eureka Sky Deck and lot more places to see. Saint Kilda beach and Brighton beach were accomplished, and still a long way to go.
Working late night or most of the time full night; I really enjoyed building 87. Sometimes we all feel that there is an attachment with endeavor room now. I think am really going to miss this experience for sure.
I celebrated Ramadan here in Melbourne, one more exciting event. Working full night and then having bread and jam in the morning 4 am for fasting and then after Namaz going to sleep for rest of the day till evening became routine that time. I and lalit use to sleep full day and up full night, so lalit also did fasting with me in way. Garlic bread was introduced by Nayab and Prachi within these days only. Now garlic bread and French onion dip is our breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner as well. Ramadan prayer was another awesome experience. We offered it in the jail court. Then we all went to shweta’s place where Shweta cooked very nice breakfast for us with shahi tukada (I just love it) then we saw movie ijaazat one my favorite movies, we also had very nice lunch together. Shweta is really amazing cook one should admit.
Initially I was very excited to see that RMIT has provided Muslim prayer rooms but felt very terrible to see that now those rooms are banned for praying. So every Friday prayer we offered in the open space near main building. I wish soon this matter will get resolved.
I never imagined last year that I will celebrate my next birthday in Melbourne. Every body was up till twelve to wish me then we celebrated it by cutting cake and saw movie the Wednesday online. That day we went to see Eureka sky deck 330mtr high residential building. It is World’s tallest residential building. An extraordinary experience again, the edge of 3 meters cantilevered glass floor was thrilling. It felt like we were flying in the air. Standing 280mtr high in air is such an extraordinary experience. In the evening I gave a small treat in Bismi again. Overall we enjoyed a lot that day. Similarly we celebrated Shweta, Nayab and Khshitish birthday with in this span.
Along with good experiences I came across some strange experiences as well. However I believe experiences only teaches a person understand the way of living. The importance of home one can understands only when you are away. We all missed home food. Now sub way burger and Bismi’s biryani has become quite a torture.
I will never forget the one week we spent in global backpackers. One of the worst experiences we had in Melbourne. The typical pungent smell, unpainted walls and the clumsy room, it was a horrible experience that led us to extensive search for an apartment. This was the time when we six got divided into two groups. Shweta and Anindita got a sharing accommodation and we went back to Victoria.
This was the time when I was going through a little bad phase and faced tough time.
Before coming to Melbourne we planned that we will work part time so that we can save good amount of money. But it didn’t work out. Some dreams remained incomplete only. 5000$ scholarship is sufficient enough to survive with bare minimum facilities in Melbourne. One would need approx 1200$ per month if he is staying in a dormitory. And for four months 5000$ is sufficient. But if u want to roam around, drink and enjoy then you definitely need to do part time job and getting a part-time job is again a stressful thing.
The thing we used the most is the internet facility by RMIT. I wonder after going back to NID, how we are going to survive? Internet has become a bare necessity some how. Everyday on NID mail we see student facing problems with slow internet speed, ban on video downloading and limited access to internet. Internet has become a bare necessity some how.
There are many things I liked about the place. Many times the culture reminds me of Goa in India. The people here, their eating and drinking habits are almost similar. I am very much impressed with neighborhood planning and the public services. Everything falls in right place, every activity happens on right time. If u walk around at morning 4 to 5 u will see the road cleaning vehicle running down the road. I really wonder why India lacks in all such kind of services. The superb road and transportation network, traffic disciplines, tram service, free tram service, disciplined and energetic people, clean and neat roads, I think I am going to miss all this back home.
Project Diabetes is now on the verge of finishing as per schedule but for me it’s still yet in the developing phase, we have developed a service for diabetics which is essentially an web based service which works in conjunction with health careers and health practitioners. Essential product support is provided for different class of patients as per their need. Very interesting aspect of this project is that rural sector can be benefited by low cost products support at subsidized rate. Soumitri has cleared lot of doubts and showed me right path every time.
I was always nervous about the project; but still I am happy to be a part of it and hopefully will keep on working ahead on the similar lines. Scenario building and paper prototyping is something really new I learned here. And I am very much convinced that, it’s a very good process to adopt for product development. It really gives justice to the produced work.
Meeting with Pam (health care practitioner) was an informative part of this project which helped me to understand the service part in more elaborate manner. Soumitri has taken regular efforts to arrange meeting with all the possible stake holders understanding my need and requirement of project. That was the best part I liked about him. Right now I am working on the product part of project, me and ben working together on the cad models of glucometer and kiosk. We both are running behind schedule and really need to gear up. My cad skills are very weak so I am under confident about that part, but still trying to learn. it is an important and necessary skill which we would need to learn to survive in the industry.
Once Soumitri said dream the service, this reminds me of a very nice statement of Paulo Coelho from his book Alchemist “Before a dream is realized, the soul of the world tests everything that was learned along the way, it does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lesson we have learned as we have moved toward the dream”.
And this is the time when most of us give up, and I don’t want to do that.
So still the journey is continued, lot more to do, lot more things to dream and make them tangible, bring them to reality.
Vazir
