31 May 2009,
SURAT: Leaving behind his family's booming hospitality business in Surat, Suketu Modi flew to Australia with a dream of making it big in information technology.
Barely eight months after landing Down Under, Modi got a shock of his life: a group of six Australian students thrashed him in a train. The 'curry bashing', as it is known there, left him so scared that he packed up within a week to return to Surat.
Recent pictures of Indian students brutally beaten up have brought back memories of his bitter experience in Melbourne. ''I was going home from the university in the train when a group of six youngsters came up to me and asked for cigarettes. When I told them that I did not smoke, they started hurling racial abuses at me. Suddenly, they started beating me. The punched me in my face and kicked me while people around did nothing,'' he said.
He discontinued his three-year degree course after just one semester at Holmesglen Institute of TAFE. He lost close to Rs 2 lakh paid as fees.
Since then, he thought it best to focus on the family business. ''Attacks on Indian students are common there. They would not harass other Asian students but target Indians only,'' Suketu said.
He recalled the case of Nikunj Patel of Vadodara, a taxi driver in Melbourne. ''Often, Australians would not pay him the fare. Once, he was shown a knife when he insisted on payment''. He said Nikunj could not return home as his parents had taken a hefty loan to send him to Australia. Premal Umap, a Sydney-based security professional who belongs to Vadodara, said such racial attacks were common. ''Most students avoid registering a complaint and suffer quietly,'' he said.
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