Rajalakshmi Ram arrived in Australia on 29th September 1970 from New Delhi, India with her husband and three children, initially on a four year posting after which the family decided to settle in Australia.
"There is some innocence about Australia ... to this day I feel that ... people are friendly, they always smile, and they still treat us a little bit like guests, no doubt, but with friendly veneration ... 'coming from India ... oh [how] exotic', that kind of thing."
For the first three months ... I would feel very lonely. I still remember sitting on the green sofa and thinking about all the past ... Leaving behind the family ... it was a big wrench coming away from there ... I used to wait for the postman and he would come on a red motorbike, a blonde guy with his long hair flying, and it was like the angel coming with the letters."
"I feel that that I had better opportunities in Australia, though my heart never changed ... my ways of thinking are all Indian, but something in me had changed ... that was a defining moment ... that we should stay on in Australia and find our new lives and grow here."
