A Story About My Mother

A story about my mother for International Womens Day today:

She was born in 1922 (actually on 22.2.22) in a small rural village in India without power, water etc.?She had to walk a few miles to collect water each day as a child.?She studied under candlelight at night.?She was the eldest of 5 siblings, so had a lot of responsibilities for them.?Her mother only went to primary school level.?She insisted that her children studied till the end of secondary school.?My mother at the age of 30, unmarried, travelled to Australia for 3 months on a Colombo Plan scholarship.?She flew to Sydney and returned via ship.

Twenty years later, as a wife and mother of 3, she applied for a job in Melbourne.?The White Australia Policy was still in force but in its last year. She was denied a work visa by the Australia govt, because they did not allow women to be breadwinners.?But her (male) future boss in Melb, who had never met her yet, and only knew her through the letters and job application, insisted that he wanted her, and only her, for the job.?So the govt found a second (false) reason to reject the visa, that she (and we) wouldn't be able to assimilate in Australian society.?Eventually, the govt relented and she got the visa, and we migrated to Melbourne in 1972.

When we arrived and tried to rent a house in Melbourne, the agent said that women cannot be signatories to the lease, it has to be a man.?So we had to find a willing male to sign the lease, though we hardly knew anyone in Melb.??

My parents and siblings have definitely assimilated well in Australia, and lived in NT, NSW, ACT, Vic, SA and Qld.?Coming to Australia was the best thing in our lives.

My mother always wore a saree.?She was the only woman in Melb wearing a saree in 1972; walking to work, at work and so on.?She copped some racism for it.?One day she was spat on by a young man, on the street, just for being different.?I was with her and just a young boy.?I couldn't stop it, it happened so fast.?She never got upset about it.?She just acknowledged that people have their own ignorance, dysfunctions and karma.

Over the subsequent years, she became the "elder sister" to hundreds of migrants in Australia and greatly appreciated.?She passed away in 2002.

Last year on 22.2.22, I had a centenary celebration for her.?A hundred of her old friends and family members attended.?It was wonderful.

Many people who knew her well say that she was at least 50 years ahead of her time, in many ways. I think she was more than a hundred years ahead, and it will take us another 50 yrs to realise that.