Savitha Dasgaonker image

Successful Relocation to the Dreamland

August 15th is celebrated as Independence Day in India. The significance of this day doubled for me, as I took a flight from India to Perth on this day, exactly 8 years back. Life took a 360-degree turn as I boarded my first international flight, surging me to the much-awaited dream world.

Taking a leap of faith:
In India, I had a decent job and good support of my parents, sisters, in-laws, and relatives. I was the youngest amongst my siblings and had a happy-go-lucky attitude. I grew up playing cricket and other games with more boys than girls in the neighbourhood; I enjoyed going around the town on a bicycle and I preferred to open the lid of my soft drink bottle, with my bare teeth.

My childhood dream was to be an advocate in Criminal Law, and I passed martial arts level one to help me fight the goons in my profession. My parents were sure that I would practice law after passing LL.M (Master of Laws) in Crime and Torts, with Distinction. But I guess destiny had different plans. Once I decided to pursue my life and my dream in Australia, I started preparing for formalities. I didn’t get through the requirements of the visa processing in the first attempt but did not give up.

And as they say, fortune favors the brave. As I look back, I can say that making a decision to move to Australia was definitely a brave decision, which changed the quality of life, not only for me but for my family too.

A mother’s sacrifice is her child’s reward:
I feel overwhelmed when I think of the challenging yet wonderful journey. Both my daughters were just 3 and 2 years respectively, when my husband and I left for Australia, leaving them in the good care of their granny. I wish we had video calls, Whatsapp, or other virtual platforms to see each other with the world between us. I had to spend almost a whole month without seeing my daughters, until we found a place to live in Armadale.

Taking the first daring step, without seeing the whole staircase:
I landed myself in Armadale with mixed feelings. I cringe as I recall the initial days of trying to find, not just my ground, but air and the sky too. In my mother’s house as a teenager, I would get scared to stay alone, even for a few minutes. But here I was, being alone at home with my two babies, as my husband was off for his night duty. For a couple of months, after we landed here and trying to settle down, I had to depend on public transport. I remember one crazy horrific rainy night when it was almost dark and I accidently got lost because I got down at the wrong bus stop. I forgot my way home and didn’t know what to do.

Slowly, but steadily I got around to understand the systems and process, ways of working as well as culture and values that bound me to Armadale, Australia.

Back in India, I was associated with a renowned university taking care of the placements of the MBA students. I had the track record of achieving 100% placements consecutively for three/four years before I moved to another area of the business. I worked there for 9 years before moving to Armadale.

Finding a job and making my career in Armadale was difficult, but interesting. I am thankful to the telecom industry Giant, being my first organization for giving me the opportunity to be a part of them for 7 years. I decided to move on for an organisation that changes lives and works in a totally different field, and has a much more humanistic approach.

All through my years in Australia, I have had to fight back so many struggles physically, emotionally and technically also with kids being too young to understand anything, finding the right day care, their schooling, and on top of it starting from scratch a career where I have to learn multiple point of software systems, developed my skills and no time was considered the Savvy Stock controller who always approaches any situation with a smile.

While I was copping up with this testing time, in 2014, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetics. Things were uncontrollable and I could go into a Diabetic coma anytime. My health had developed so many complications due from this and I was put on a severe dose of insulin, and other medications. I almost passed out twice while working and was taken to the Emergency but this did not stop me from working. Rather I took it as a challenge and over the years with a combination of diet, medicines and exercise I am now in a non-diabetic range, and I am super proud of it.

I was known for being scared of being alone at home. Coming here forced me to step out of my comfort zone and my only option was to be brave enough to stay home while my husband worked at night. I needed to be brave for my kids, but didn’t take away my many sleepless nights. I had to walk 2.5 kilometres everyday as we had no buses near us, take my kids to school and attend work. Friday’s were the worst because I started at 7am in the morning.

I tried to keep a smile on my face and stay positive while I dealt with my health, mental health, finances, transportation and being brave enough to catch public transport.

I know I fought to be here today, but my husband and my family are my rock. After 9 years of being here, I now feel like this is my home.

Thank you Armadale and thank You Australia for adding that ‘extra’ in my life at every step and for turning an ordinary girl from India to an extraordinary person in Australia.  Thank you for not just allowing me to spread my wings, but by also providing me with the strength to surge like an eagle in the sky.  

Until you spread your wings, you have no idea how far you can fly!

Page Last Reviewed 9 May 2023