RAJIV RAJU

Story

I am Rajiv and was born and brought up in Chennai, India. Chennai is a southern city in the state of Tamil Nadu within India. I was born to Y. Raju and Rajalaksmi as their second son. I have an elder brother who lives in USA. My dad is a practising chartered accountant in Chennai for the past 35 years and mom is a homemaker. Elder brother is married to Neeraja and they both work in the field of Information Technology.

The reason for me to leave India and arrive here in Sydney, Australia was for my postgraduate studies. I did a MBA degree from University of Technology, Sydney. Even though my dad wanted me to get qualified in India and take up his practice I wanted to get exposed to an International degree. Even though, I considered USA as an option for higher studies I was not eligible then to apply for a MBA degree since most of the universities there need work experience as a pre-requisite.

I finished my Bachelor of Commerce undergraduate degree in 2001 and immediately started the MBA program in Sydney. I went through IDP Education Australia for my application process in University and got in touch with a few friends namely Manoj and Soundar who were applying for the same course.

Since I was travelling overseas for the first time in my life I was pretty nervous. I had to take the flight from Chennai with my friend Soundar and Manoj was left behind since his visa did not get issued on time. We both met a girl called Preeti in the Chennai airport who was leaving to Sydney as well . Her dad advised me to take care of her during the flight since she was travelling for the first time. I did assure him and I requested my friend Soundar to swap his seat for her to make her feel at home. It was a very nervous journey and I came a bit relaxed after reaching Singapore. I came to know that Preeti was already married after reaching Sydney. She did not disclose it in the first instance . I had Soundar’s cousin Jazz in the Kingsford Smith airport to pick up us and we went to an apartment in Surry Hills.

I was a bit scared and nervous on the first day since I was travelling overseas for the first time . My immidiate impression on arrival was that I am in a safe and peaceful western country. Intially I had some issues in understanding people on what they speak but it did improved day by day. Now I feel I have made the right decision to come here to Australia and proud to be an Australian Citizen.

[Historic Events where fitted in]

2001- Ansett Australia crash and September 11 attacks.

[Main Problems and successes]

Since the course study here is different from India it took me some time to feel comfortable in study and progress. I intially had help from Sam, my first flatmate who was in his final semester of study. I also got a lot of motivation from Aditya, who was from the same city where I came from. He did help me a lot and did enable to finish the course in every way. He is my best friend here in Sydney and we still keep in touch.

[Unusual Experiences]

My dad was on a holiday to the USA in 2003 to visit my brother’s place. He had some severe health problem in his lungs and was operated in the US for the same. He was rushed back to Chennai and I had to leave Australia as soon as possible. All the tickets were booked out of the city, but I was able to get hold of a Pakistani travel agent to get me ticket to Chennai via Singapore. But there was disaster waiting for me at the Sydney airport. I was not able to board my flight since I was staying Singapore airport for more than 24 hours and did not have a transit visa in my passport. The rules have changed now though. After a long discussion with the Qantas officials I was able to get a flight seat in Australian airlines the next day morning . I was very lucky that and I am really grateful to the Qantas officials to bail me out of the situation. I was advised to sue the travel agent but never did it.

[Marriage and Family]

I am still single and my parents live in Chennai, India. My brother lives with his family in the US and has got his permanent residence here in Australia. He is expected to fly down under some time before August of 2009 to make his official entry.

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