Haimanti Sukla, singer

nI hardly ever get the time to travel for pleasure, so as much, most of my trips have been to places where I’ve gone for work, but stayed on a couple of extra days as a sort of vacation. These trips have taken me all over the world, but the one destination that I enjoyed going to the most was Australia.

My trip there happened a few years ago, part of a cultural programme organised by the Bengali Association. The 2000 Olympics had just got over, but the spirit of the Games was still in the air. Everywhere, there was an air of festivity, with participants roaming around the streets, ready and willing to get their pictures taken with us. It was a lot of fun!

Australia is incredibly beautiful, especially Sydney and Melbourne, where we went. The huge mountains, the sea lapping at the shore, the sight-seeing spots and most of all, the friendly people ? each place was nicer than the other. There’s a sizeable population of Bengalis there who’ve made Australia their home ? in fact, they’d even taught the locals a few words from our dialect!