Newcastle

I had to return to Australia for awhile, principally to meet family in Newcastle.

I hadn't spent much time in Newcastle while I lived in Australia.  It turned out to be a pretty town with spectacular beaches and a relaxed lifestyle.  And it was good to have some downtime with family. Though my life at the moment is a LOT of downtime!

What was most surprising was the mild culture shock in returning to Australia given that I lived there for a decade and it is not long since I moved.  Partly this was because Newcastle is a very white town unlike Sydney which probably has the most diverse population of all Australian cities. Partly because it has been easy to slip back into Asian life, not that I anticipated that it would be difficult given how frequent my trips to India were in the decade I was in Australia.  At any event I felt like I was navigating a familiar and yet strange landscape . Again I had that old feeling best captured by DH Lawrence. A landscape of mystery and beauty yet somehow colourless lives. Having lived in Australia I know this to be not true, rather life is good and bad in equal measures much like elsewhere.  Yet this is the overwhelming impression left by over large houses, quiet streets devoid of people and the general lack of colour and movement in public spaces.

Additionally I had forgotten how large houses are in Australia. Previously I hadn't given it much thought but suddenly it seemed pointless, every house has a good deal of unused space, each room requires furniture and so on.  This in turn creates the feeling of emptiness, already present in a vast country. Compounding this is the poor public transport away from Sydney.

Still autumn is probably one of the best times to visit Australia. The weather is crisp and cool, the Australian light at its best and everywhere along the coast there is dense grey green vegetation broken by blue seas.

My nieces have grown. The elder one is a lot quieter though her zany self breaks through now and then. She is in school and her studies, her peers and their interests occupy most of her time. The younger one, still at home, is a scamp and not surprisingly a lot of attention is focussed on her.

The nieces are about 1000% into Frozen.  I have to confess that I dislike Disney products and Frozen is no exception.  I tend to prefer Anglo-French whimsy and gentleness (like Charlie and Lola) or original fairy tales that are dark and complex, unlike their sanitised Disney versions. Frozen is touted as a female empowerment story but in reality it is a trite tale that is so common to modern Western feminism (I can do without a man, sisters forever!) laced with Disney pop ballads that are simply not my kind of music.  Still it was lovely to listen to my nieces singing, one in her high, clear voice the other with her childish lisp.

Given Newcastle, my niece is probably the only child of Indian heritage in her school.  She is a third gen Australian and yet you can see that there are still issues she has to negotiate.  On the one hand she is (rightfully) immersed in the culture of the country. But this cocktail of Disney stories (and Australian Disney products are overwhelmingly white, its rare to spot a Mulan, Pocahontas or Tiana), fairies, gothic Mattel and the like have little correlation with how she looks. It is one thing to consume it as foreign product as one may in India, another to negotiate it as part of the culture. At the same time, her grandparents tales from Indian mythology are alien to her in some ways. The niece is a well adjusted child but also an intelligent one and you can see that her schooling experience i.e. her position in the larger society and culture at home raises some questions.

We also went shopping for the kids. Everything, and I mean everything, is gender segregated, from clothes to toys to kiddie TV shows. The entire girl section is pink, the entire boy section blue and camouflage print.  In some ways we have to feel grateful that there is no kid consumer base being tapped into in India - for the large part children watch and read and play with the same things. Having said that, the nieces do have the beach, the playground, even their own little garden all of which they enjoy and it is fun for the adults too.

Going back meant looking at everything with a fresh pair of eyes.  I don't know what the future holds but it looks like it will be awhile before I contemplate a return to Sydney. And at the moment being here, dividing time between Singapore and India, feels right.