Local MP joins Indian group at Clean Up Australia event

This year’s annual Clean Up Australia day on Sunday, March 4 found willing participants in not just a large number of people of Indianorigin people, but also from organisations representing the subcontinent here.

The Shree Kutch Leva Patel Samaj (SKLPS) participated in the event for the second year running. The not-for-profit organisation’s newly established Social Events Network registered independently, booking the site, organising the day’s schedule and inviting Ms. Julia Owens, Federal Member for Parramatta to join the group.

Nearly 70 SKLPS members participated in the clean up, including about 10 children under the age of 12, collecting approximately 30 bags of rubbish in the bush and around the lake at Parramatta

Park. Luckily for the enthusiastic volunteers, the rain stayed away, allowing them to work from 10am to 12noon. The group then gathered together to enjoy a home-cooked Gujarati lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the weather and playing cricket and football.

SKLPS participants enjoyed the experience, with comments as varied as “It feels good to do something for the community” to “Eeww, I found a nappy!” enlivening the day.

Julie Owens was pleased to have participated with a local community group “to spruce up a local jewel”. She said, “We all know the positive contribution Australians that share an Indian heritage have had on Parramatta; this is yet another practical example of their commitment to the area”.

SKLPS Sydney has been in operation since the past four years, organising a series of events through the year with the aim of bringing together the Kutchi Leva Patel community in the city.

Sikh Youth Australia (SYA) also brought together a group of EcoSikhs who teamed up with Glenwood Gurdwara and Revesby Gurdwara to participate in Clean Up Australia.

Devotees of Shree Ram Sharnam at the Woodcroft community centre also joined Clean Up Australia day with volunteers in the area, adding their bit to this great environmental cause.

Clean Up Australia Day has been running since 1989, and this year, an estimated 591,400 volunteers removed 16,199 tonnes of rubbish from 7,363 Clean Up sites across the country.

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BY RAJNI ANAND LUTHRA

They are a generation apart, enjoying their twilight years here in Australia in the company of family and friends. Our respected 65-plus citizens still play an important, and sometimes indispensable role in our lives, and for the most part, they are content with their lot. So what gives them happiness? It could be little things like helping out around the family home, indulging in hobbies or catching up with friends. Or our savvy seniors spend time surfing the net, keeping up with current affairs or volunteering. Indeed, the theme of Seniors Week - Live Life! - might as well have been written for the desi seniors we speak with here.

Family

Without doubt, the first thought that comes to mind when you ask seniors what makes them happy, is family. Children, grandchildren and extended family, wherever in the world they may be. Grandparents are an indispensable part of the family unit here, providing care and support for their grandchildren, as their children pursue work and careers.

Charan Sekhon is a classic case. With three adult children all happily married and living within drivable distance, retired life has come alive with family all over again.

“I have six grandchildren - the youngest is only a month old - and I am happy to be involved in their lives since they were born,” she says. Charan helped out with the babies when they were born, while always careful never to impose. When the young mums were ready to go back to work, she looked after the babies for a day a week, making it easier on the new families.

“This involved feeding, putting to sleep, changing, bathing, walking – the whole job, and I loved every minute of it,” she admits enthusiastically, even while supervising bath-time for one of the kids.

“Now my older grandkids want a different kind of attention, such as food they might not get at home, like parathas. I love cooking for them,” claims Charan. Her husband, who still works, has also begun to chip in. He spends one evening with the older kids at their home helping with homework, especially maths.

“When I go to pick him up, the little ones come running out to greet me – and it makes my day!” says Charan with a smile.

Charan is just one among the many, many grandparents who play an essential role in the lives of their grandchildren which goes beyond just daily chores. Apart from the bonding, they strive to inculcate a better understanding of their past heritage, culture, traditions and even religious beliefs. It’s a wonderful relationship that we hope will blossom and grow.

Friends

After family, friends are an integral part of our seniors’ lives. Subhashini Channa migrated here with her young family many years ago, and met a group of happily like-minded families also living in the Hills district. They offered mutual support which blossomed and grew into long-lasting, secure and comfortable friendships. They have experienced births, childhood years, teens, adulthood, marriages, grandchildren, career successes, some misfortunes, health issues – together in a bond of friendship which has endured for over 20 years. What could be more rewarding than that?

“We are very close,” says Subashini. “We continue to be totally involved in each others’ lives. If there is ever a problem, we know they are just a phone call away”.

“A healthy set of friends is a very, very important asset especially in the senior years,” Subhashini, 70, says. “Ultimately, we are all in a similar - not sameboat. Our kids are busy with their own families, and we ourselves are looking at slowing down. We have similar needs now, and find that we keep each other going.” Sagely, Subhashini concludes, “Our friends are our family.”

Travel

When Dr Rakesh Sachdev decided to ‘semi-retire’ in 2002, the group Young Active Retirees (YAR) was born. His great idea was to travel around the world in the company of close friends. “We felt we had reached a stage in our lives where we had fulfilled most of our family commitments and now had a well earned opportunity to broaden our life experiences,” he says.

“Some advantages of travelling in senior years are, visiting famous landmarks; meeting a range of people and getting to know their cultures and traditions; gaining a perspective in one’s own life and reassess one’s values; going back to one’s roots, and gaining a new frame of reference for understanding the world,” adds Rakesh.

Rakesh and Sarita Sachdev and their friends have now travelled to every continent of the world, even Antarctica.

“We boarded a cruise ship from Brazil, passed through Falkland Islands, went around the Antarctic Peninsula, touched Ushuaia

(southernmost city in the world), and finished in Chile,” he recounts enthusiastically.

They have gone on cruises in Alaska, and from Sydney to Capetown via Mauritius on the Queen Mary 2. East Africa, South America and China were fascinating in different ways.

On their trip to Lake Mansarvor and Mt Kailash they ran medical clinics in Tibet.

Travelling in Europe, they were caught up in the bomb blast in Madrid, and missed connecting flights, an adventure not easily forgotten.

Another treasured memory is Potsdam where in 1945 the Heads of State of the war coalition (Josef Stalin, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill) met to decide on a deal about defeated Germany.

But very special to Rakesh is a trip to Pakistan. “I wanted to trace my roots, and visited my birthplace. I had the privilege of visiting Nankana Sahib and Panja Sahib gurudwaras, and the Khyber Pass with an Army escort,” he says.

Rakesh and his band of merry travellers will visit the Arctic in August. “We are taking a cruise around Spitzberg and going sightseeing in Norway and Finland. We are expecting 23 hours daylight at that time of the year – it’s going to be lots of fun!”

Now that’s what real retirement is all about!

Work

Work has always defined Saroja

Srinivasan. She has been a clinical psychologist for some 45 years now, and continues to work one day a week to this day. “I always knew work would be an important aspect of my life, even before I was married,” she says. But it is the kind of work Saroja does that made her decide to continue working through her senior years.

“Being a clinical psychologist has contributed to me being me – or the kind of person I am. It helps me to understand myself better. It has certainly influenced my quality as a mother; it has worked to create some great relationships within my own family,” she admits candidly.