About four or five years ago I saw a Facebook post in a group named after my hometown. A person trying to trace his roots somewhere in my hometown. I talked to my father if he can help. A year later I got a call from his cousin that they found the village where his ancestors came from. I was very happy to hear that. I was connected with him through Facebook. Last month I saw his Facebook update that he is here in New Zealand. I texted him where he is about here in New Zealand. He said he is in Auckland at this moment. I live in Auckland too. We decided to meet.
This meeting is not of just two individuals. His ancestors were from my village and they left for Fiji about 120 years ago. Since then they never had any contact with their roots. I understand those days it wasn't easy to communicate. Now we are in a technology age where communication from far is so instant. With the help of technology and the internet, he got to find out about his roots. Who knew 120 years later that two individuals having the roots from the same place will meet miles and miles away here in New Zealand? I went to see him. It was very nice to meet him and to get to know him and his family in Fiji. It was a nice meeting with him. Later I went to drop him off at the place where he was staying.
When I went to drop him, I realised this is the area where I stayed for the first three weeks when I came to New Zealand. I saw the street and the house where I stayed. First, I dropped him at his place and later I parked the car and went for a walk on this street which was bridging the memory back of my early days as a new immigrant in this country. I remember the street and few familiar shops. Most of the shops were closed and Street was mostly empty. I checked the time. It was already 8.50 PM. I don’t know if it was coincidence or something else when I noticed the date of the watch which was 18th March. I realised that today's the 18th of March, 7 years ago when I left India to come to New Zealand. Here again after 7 years later on the eve of completing 7 years here in New Zealand, I am on the same street where I came for the first time in New Zealand. I see the street, the place, the shops. Back to the same place after 7 years exactly on the same date. What a coincidence! Was there some message in it, I don't know?
Actually, I stayed only three weeks at this place and I never came back after leaving this place. But this place became part of my life journey. I had a very rough memory associated with the place. I will tell you why this place scares me.
I was flatting in a house. There were few other people, but most of them moved out in a day or two. All of them were new immigrants from India or Sri Lanka. Owner of the house is a lady in her 40s I guess, living by herself. She would not allow us to cook in the kitchen. We have to cook in the garage on a temporary setup. I was fine with it. I was cooking only one meal other times I will eat fruits or make a sandwich or something. I am new here and looking for work. I will open my computer and apply for jobs. Sometimes I will work on something to brush up my technical skills. Since I had a laptop computer which has an inbuilt battery, I need charge when the battery is over. I will tell you about me that I care for this planet, our mother earth. I am not a Greenpeace activist, but I avoid using electricity or vehicles if possible.
One day I needed to charge my computer. I notice that there is no power in my room. I asked the house owner about it and if there was a power outage or something. She told me that she has switched off the supply for my room and she does it every day, so you all don't use unnecessary power. I said fair enough, but I don't use much power. I got nothing except a computer and a phone to charge. I started charging my phone and computer at night times. In just a few days since I came to this house, she started harassing me. She seems to be so obsessed with electricity usage.
One day I was in the toilet when I came out, she was standing at the toilet door. She literally freaked me out and she started asking me like an interrogation if I used the light bulb. I said no, it was daytime and bright. She kept scolding me that she will charge extra money. This is only the end of the first week at this place, now I know why people were moving out. From that day I started looking for a new place.
Same week to find a new place. But to move out from my current place, I need to give her two weeks’ notice as per the commitment. I gave her notice that I will be moving out after two weeks. And then things started getting worse.
One day I washed my clothes. She would not allow any of the tenants to use the dryer. Weather was okay in the daytime, so I put my clothes outside on the rope which was very small and not enough for all of my clothes. I have to place my clothes on top of each other. This cloth rope was at the side of the house, quite a narrow space and not enough sun. Well I had no other option. Later it started raining heavily, so I rushed to bring my clothes inside. Clothes were still wet. Well I brought them inside. I made one mistake that I forgot to lock the side door which gives access from that side of the house. An hour later when she noticed that door was not locked properly. She called me and started threatening me that she knew my plan about robbing her house. I was shocked to hear what nonsense she is talking about. I couldn’t understand what she was talking about. She told me that I intentionally left the side door unlocked. I said sorry I might have forgotten to lock the door, but I didn’t do it intentionally. And do you really think that I came all the way from India to rob your house. She told me that she has my details and if anything happens in her house, she would call the cops. I got scared of this lady after listening to her such imaginations. I told her don’t worry I am an engineer by profession. I write programming code. I came here as a skilled migrant and I don’t do the “robbing house” job.
I have just arrived in this country and spent a week or two and this is my first experience in this country. Frankly speaking I was scared. This house owner literally scared me. I was like if she makes a few more false accusations and takes me to the cops. I knew nothing would happen to me since I didn't do anything bad. But it's just unnecessary stress. I talked to the people where I was supposed to be moving next week. I asked them if I can move there tomorrow?'' They asked me what about the notice period at your current place. I told them I have already paid the rent in advance and I know that I won't get it back. It's fine. I will lose some money, but I can’t continue to stay here under such harassment. I would like to move to tomorrow, if possible. They said yes, you can start living here from tomorrow.
I told my house owner that I am moving out tomorrow. She was asking where you are going. I told her going to Christchurch which wasn't true but why it matters to her where I am going. She started threatening me again that if I don't live here one more week, she is going to charge me extra and she will not refund my bond money. I told her I have already paid you the rent in advance. I am not asking my rent back, I know you won’t give it to me. But please give me my bond money back. She agreed to return the bond money only. Next day she came to inspect my room when I was leaving, and she showed me two marks on the wall, one mark was quite higher than my height. The second mark which I noticed was on the side of the wall. Believe me I didn't make any mark. She threatened me that she would call the cops. I told her Please go ahead. Later she deducted 100 dollars from my bond money, and she gave me the remaining amount. At this stage I don’t want to argue with her. I lost another 100 dollars for nothing.
While leaving, I thanked her for providing accommodation in her house. But she was blabbering with anger that she has my details and if I rob her house, she would call the cops. By this time, I was sure she had some issue in her mind or maybe she had a bad experience with any of her previous tenants. Anyway, for me it is time to move on. I just greeted her with thank you and Namaste and came out from her house. But I would be scared if she calls the cops. I knew nothing would happen, I didn’t do anything wrong but unnecessary hassle for me. I went to the bus stop and caught the bus, a bit relieved and free. I can breathe now.
When I was on the bus, I got quite a few texts on my phone from her. These texts were full of so many abuses and hateful things. She wrote to me "You are born black because you committed sins in your past life". "You Indians are criminals''. She also cursed that "You will never have a house. You will make your life poor and homeless". Believe me I did not take any words of her seriously. She also sent me a text to send her 200 dollars otherwise she would complain about the marks on the wall to the cops. By this time, I was assured that she was a psycho. Sorry to use this Psycho word but something was pretty wrong with her.
Later when I shared this incident with few friends, they told me that I should have complained to the authorities here. Authorities are very strict against any sort of harassment. Well I was new here. I didn't want to indulge in this painful process. One or two weeks later another flatmate from the same house texted me that he also moved out, and she was threatening him as well to give her more money otherwise she would call the cops. He also told her to go ahead.
I don't know why she had so much hate for India or Indian people. The house owner lady was herself a Fijian Indian. She was following all the rituals of Indian customs and culture. Recently I told about this incident recently to one of my very good friends who is of Fiji Indian origin. She asked me if this incident made me hate Fijian Indian people. Her mom was also present, and she said if that was the case, he wouldn't have been your friend. Yes, Aunty is right that an individual's behaviour doesn't make the whole country, geography or a particular race bad.
There are bad people and good people everywhere. If we start making a generalisation on the basis of a few individuals' behaviour, then the whole world is bad. But this world is beautiful and there are so many amazing people in this world. Even those whom we think or consider bad people, the thing with them is that they are also part of this earth. Maybe they are the medium to show us the mirror that we should not behave like them. Experiences we consider bad, make us to be appreciative of everything which brings us comfort, happiness, joy and peace.
This was just one experience which frightened me since it started my journey here in New Zealand but my last seven years, I have made so many friends here. People are amazing and so welcoming. Thank you, Aotearoa (New Zealand) whanau(family) for the aroha(love) and the welcome.
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