Is time precious in Australia
It was almost seven in the evening when I prepared myself to return Home from Salisbury on Saturday. I had gone to see my friend Ichha who had just completed his grandpa’s rituals and where I could not attend the final day ceremony due to other businesses. I took the opportunity to meet another friend Devi Charan.
I had to rush home, far down to Brighton where my father was already waiting for the door key. It was the horrible experience that I encountered in South Australia. I remembered the day I arrived Australia when I could not get a bus in the evening even after waiting for almost two hours.
Despite good things here I observed during my three weeks stay in Adelaide, I think transport service is bad, if not worst. For new entrants, Australian experiences would be troublesome, awesome. You cannot get license immediately and purchasing a car and then learning the driving tactics here would take six or more months.
I had to wait for some half an hour for train at Salisbury interchange that dropped me at Mawson Lakes interchange. Due to closure of the train service between Mawson Lakes and city, people have to board bus which takes more than double time compared to train to arrive at the city.
The worrisome is the lack of timely train service. I waited more than an hour at the city station to get my train to Norlunga center. So, for a driving distance of less than an hour, I consumed more than two hours to arrive home. My father was waiting outside the door, bearing cold blows of the wind.
Had there been private transportation, the competition among the service providers would have improved the service thereby helping people without their own vehicle to reach destinations on time. I had listened many stories from people of wasting so much of time on transportation that would have been consumed in some other fruitful works. I experienced myself today.
I had seen many people carrying laptops while travelling around which I felt awkward. However, today’s horrible experience made me realized that had I carried the laptop, I would have done so much of works while travelling.
For all new comers to Australia, it is advisable to be ready to spend so much of time for transportation: more than you give in the job or studies. Time is not precious here, even if some take it, for new immigrants in Australia.