Point of Departure

A quiet Saturday morning early March, summer has entered its final weeks and it is noticeably less warm than a couple of weeks before when the first semester of the New Year officially began. Traditionally, students are welcomed back on campus with what is commonly referred to as Orientation: a week of picking up booklists, going to introductory sessions and ‘signing up’ for all sorts of clubs and societies that are supposed to make life on campus about more than just studying alone. From the University of Melbourne, located in the heart of the city, to Latrobe University on the outskirts, all universities have days when these clubs and societies present themselves, often with traditional Australian barbeques, games and lots of beer. Now, a couple of weeks later, classes have begun, and the time of orientation and introductions is supposed to be over. Yuva, the Indian student organization at Monash University's Caulfield campus, made good use of Orientation to recruit newly arrived Indian students. Earlier, Rohit, one of the organizers of Yuva, had explained to me that they had only recently formed this club. Some of the Indian overseas students on campus had been playing cricket together for some time, and one day one of them had suggested forming a club so that others could join in as well. Rather appropriately then, this particular morning they had their first official club activity planned: a mini-cricket tournament.