Essay: Whither, Bliss?

Cherian Philipose shares a personal essay about immigrating from India to Australia and about the challenge of finding satisfying work.

Many years ago, when I was younger and knew less about the world, I began to believe in what may be called ‘the Australian Dream’ and immigrated to this beautiful country. I was naive then and had never visited another country, but fortunately for me, I fell in love with Australia, and especially with my chosen city, Adelaide. However, here too, I have been confronted with a problem that I had when I lived in India. Could I do what I loved for a living?

Thanks to family support, my life in Mumbai was relatively secure. But doing what I loved for a living was not easy. I had studied literature and trained in journalism. Writing freelance articles was fairly easy, but not stimulating. I could not choose my subjects freely. I had to write what the magazines wanted, and besides, the money I made was too little to build a career on. If I wanted a career as a journalist, I would have to get a full-time job at a newspaper and write whatever they wanted me to write. This would not have made me feel successful – the more I moved away from literature, the more I would feel like a sellout.