I have spent more than a fortnight now in the land Down under. The city of Sydney is really lively and quite beautiful. A few observations I have made:

1 ) With total land area that is more than twice the size of India, and yet with less 2% of the population of India, you may think you will not find crowd in Australia. But most population being concentrated in certain coastal areas, if you are living in a major city, you may as well dispel this thought.

2 ) Kangaroos and koalas are not found openly in the streets of Sydney! I want to specifically tell this to my mom :)

3 ) A lot of things are automated. Authorization is maintained very strictly. For example, if you don’t have a proper access card, you may come down a lift, but you can’t take it up! Not only lifts, but even main gates or office doors may be used only by people with proper access. This is specially true on weekends or after office hours for a lot of offices. Now I know why they always stress on the term ‘after hours’. In the same way, the use of motion sensors is quite common – it saves power and water. They are most certainly used in several parts of the world, but their usage here is very widespread.

4 ) A lot of stress is given to safety of people. When the local metro trains are about to leave the station platform, you may find multiple guards whistling it off!

5 ) In the Hindi movie Dil Chahta Hai, when Aamir Khan gets into a local Sydney train, and you think the next sound is a strange background music – it is not. It is the train horn!

6 ) Aussies do use the term mate a lot, but it is NOT the only word they use to greet/address people.

7 ) As one of my colleagues remarked once, you may not find many females sporting earrings, but you will certainly spot many males with earrings :)

8 ) A high percentage of people are immigrants. Sometimes I feel I am in Beijing, not Sydney!

9 ) A lot of roads in Sydney are inclined a lot. Sometimes while walking on the streets I feel like I am trekking! The criss – cross of train lines and roads and tunnels is a sight to behold. For the first time, I saw railway tracks at different levels – one below the other.

10 ) Use of elevators everywhere. A lot of thought has been put behind the design and construction of civic amenities.

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