Looking back at my Day 1 in Melbourne

I was reminded about my first day in Melbourne when i was interacting with my friends colleague who has just come down to Melbourne. I did not know about blogging then, but that doesnt mean that my first day in melbourne cannot be documented on my blog!!!!

I took off from a 40 degree hot Mumbai to land in a 7 degree cold Melbourne. That was the first bit of change. It was bloody cold and only the excitement of a new country, a new place, new beginnings, new friends and more that kept me going. The infrastructure (roads, traffic etc) was not such a surprise to me as I had been to Dubai before. The accents of people and the numerous Goras that were there all around me was a change indeed.

I checked into the Hotel and just stretched after that long flight. It was about 9 in the night and I munched on some roti and jam that Mommy had packed for me. After a quick call home to tell tham I reached safe, myself and my 2 other friends were left wondering about what to do. It was Friday night and university would not start until Monday. Because of the time difference there was not an ounce of sleep in our eyes. We decided to go out and explore the city.
The Hotel was in the heart of the city and being Friday night, it was a happening place. Lots of people, many with beer bottles in hand and almost everybody were in couples!!!! There were so many 'Chinkis' there that I wondered if I got on the wrong flight and landed in Shanghai!!!!!

Whatever I saw, was so different to what I was used to seeing - the way people look, the way they speak, dress, walk, laugh, the roads, the sounds, the boards ....everything. I saw the first case of PDA when this couple was making out bang in the middle of Bourke Street. I was taking all of this in. My university, my course, my ambition etc were all secondary and I was just taking in everything that I was actually seeing.

We walked a bit further and saw boards that read "ClubX" and "Adult Show" and "Peep show" and the like. Whoa!!!!! Now thats a big change. It was all too much to take in in teh first few hours of having arrived and I needed some water. I went into a 7-11 and bought the most expensive bottle of water at 2$ and thought to myself that 52Rs for a bottle of water is ridiculous. (in those days 1AUD = 26Rs)

It was about midnight and we decided to go to the HOtel room and try to get to bed so that we got into local time schedule soon. We lied down on our beds and put the TV on. It was one of the National channels and what was playing is what I better knew as "porn"!!!! We said to each other "Sahi Desh hai yaar ye!!!!"

The nights sleep was quite disturbed and i woke up only next afternoon!!!!!! i walked into McDonalds and looked up the board for something veggie. There was none. So I ordered a Cheese Burger. When I collected my burger, I could see some meat inside my burger. When i asked the counter girl, she said it was a Cheese burger and that is had a slice of beef. Oh Ok - cheese burgers have beef in them. I asked if I could get a burger with just cheese inside and I got an affirmative. But what followed was just plain funny - the girl took the cheese burger from me, removed the slice of beef from between and gave it back to me as a burger with just cheese in it.

It was not their fault, I paid 4$ (oops i mean 104Rs) for it and threw it straight into the bin. I think I had a jumbo margherita pizza slice for lunch. cant remember.
Day one was eventful and its been a long way since then, but times have gone by so fast. It was a challenge and all i can do is to hope for more such challenges in the future.

Note : Reproduced from my other blog at http://o3.indiatimes.com/rpramod