Community Magazines

Chingshang *

In the early days of my stay in Melbourne I was least bother about what's happening in India and what's going on in Indian community here. This may be because I was rather engrossed more with my academic affairs and didn't have much spare time or just seer negligence on my part.

Above all no one thinks me an Indian; forget about my University professors and classmates, even my Indian friends. It's so funny. But I could not help to blame anyone. My racial trait of being a Mongoloid does the trick here. Everyone thinks me I am either from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam or somewhere else. Chinese, Japanese and Korean are much fair enough for me.

The funny part does not end here itself. Every time I go to some larger Asian supermarkets like Little Saigon in Footscray, it happens very often for the shopkeepers to talk to me in their language. Only when I reply in English, they will start talking to me in English.

A collage of Community magazine

One of my Indian friends told me later on that she thinks me an Indonesian in the first sight. The strong presence of south East Asian and other Asian communities in Melbourne also may helps in this kind of identity mismanagement. But for me it is very easy to identify who is an Indian in Melbourne.

As I grew up an Indian in India, whether you like it or not, I know what's expected to be an Indian. I also know very well where Manipur lies in the eye of an average Indian. My passport is Indian, no matter what you looks like. So you just can't turn a blind eye in what's happening in India, in fact, India in Melbourne.

Melbourne and its surrounding suburbs have strong Indian communities that are drawn from different parts of India. But in this ever hectic city of fast life and living, linking communities is not a very easy task even in the age of internet and emails.

A collage of Community magazine

I am an outsider, an international student, who has nothing to do with the established communities here. But seeing Indian communities from an outsider's perspective is of great interest. I feel one of the best ways to have a glimpse of what's happening in Indian communities in Melbourne is to regularly scan many of the well circulated community magazines.

They are circulated on a monthly basis free of cost. So far I could read around 8-10 magazines monthly. Most of these magazines are readily available in almost all the Indian speciality shops and shops are located in almost every suburb of Melbourne.

Contents of the magazines are fairly general in nature but provides lots of information about community events, recent happenings in India, bollywood specials, advertisements of Indian grocery stores and restaurants, Travel agents, migration agents, educational consultants, housing and home loan services, learning driving, musical concerts by Indian artists, festival news, Indian festivals calendar and so on.

A collage of Community magazine

Celebrations of major Indian festivals like Holi, Deewali, and Independence Day etc. are widely covered by these community magazines. A sizable amount of contents in each magazine pertains to advertisements from many educational and migration consultants located here in Melbourne.

They are providing all sorts of course and visa related services for international students which are definitely of great help. Some of the most well circulated community magazines pertaining to Indians in Melbourne as far as my knowledge goes include;

Bharat Times : URL
Indian Times : URL
India Link : URL
Indus Age : URL
G'day India : URL
Indian Voice : URL
Indian Student : URL
Beyond India : email
South Asia Times : URL
India at Melbourne : URL

These community magazines have also strong online presence providing flexibility for both readers and advertisers. In fact these magazines are providing yeoman services to the community.

The significance of these community magazines are strongly felt especially in times of need like recent incidents of attacking of a taxi driver and students of Indian origin, death of Indian students in accident and the like. The community magazines are also sort of mouthpiece to voice the problems face by the community.

Basically there are many communities of Indian origin in Melbourne like Tamils, Malayalis, Telegus, Punjabis, Gujaratis, and Kannadigas and so on. Each community celebrates festivals or functions from time to time which we seldom notice.

However all these communities are brought under a single banner as Indian community under which community magazines provides a wholesome coverage. What's happening in each community is largely reported and covered in almost all the community magazines.

I find these community magazines are of great help to international students also. Many of the general problems face by the student community are reported from time to time. The recent changes in the outsourcing of Indian consular activities regarding its passport and visa services were frequently covered and updated in all the magazines.

A collage of Community magazine

It provides the address, type of services, fees, contact numbers and other relevant information in all details. Basically these magazines were conceptualized to provide community services and these services are made available free of cost to ensure wide readership. Slice of Indian Bollywood is also quite strong in almost all the magazines.

Regular updates, review of latest flicks and star gossip columns are predominant features. In recent times, there has been a steady stream of Bollywood flicks being shot in some of the most breathtaking locales here down under. Community magazines provide a sneak preview of the happenings during the shooting schedule, about the places being pictured, interaction of stars with locales and so on.

In fact community magazine is a ubiquitous phenomenon for all the communities here in Melbourne. I have also come across many magazines pertaining to different other communities-like Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese etc.

But what differentiates Indian community magazines from the rest of other community magazines is the seer size in the number of magazines and all English language publications except one or two. Most of the other community magazines are published in their native languages.

There are also many freely circulated mainstream Australian street magazines and tabloids. 'Beat' and 'Mx' are two most popular free handouts. 'Beat' is considered to be the most widely circulated street magazine in Australia.

In fact it is a gold mine for music and music related information and events. City weekly is another freely circulated magazine on every Thursday. I have been reading this magazine for quite sometime.

Sometimes I just wonder how is it possible to publish so many magazines and circulated free of cost. Well this is possible as certain amount in the council or organisations budget is earmarked for public services.

Providing relevant information to the general public is considered to be one of the greatest services. Value of the printed information is always on the high in this city on fast lane.

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* Chingshang, a Graduate student at University of Melbourne, contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The writer can be contacted at rockm(at)rediffmail(dot)com . This article was webcasted on November 05th 2008.

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