Inside this Week
Women safety crisis | Smit Machchhar | Daniel Mookhey | Indian brands in AUS | Strathfield Mayor Sandy Reddy | Oct films
Just Wanted to Say
Last week, Pawan and I received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the IABCA Awards.
“Lifetime” is a slightly alarming word. It makes you want to check whether someone knows something you don’t.
In the lead up to the gala event, I found myself thinking less about longevity and more about difference. Pawan and I are very different people — in temperament, skills, instincts, even in how we might tell the same story. Yet somehow, across more than three decades, those differences have built something neither of us could have built alone.
Perhaps there’s something in that for the wider Australian story too.
We don’t have to become more alike to belong together. Difference can be building material.
Indian Link began by telling the stories of a community finding its place in Australia. Somewhere along the way, we realised those stories were not sitting on the margins of the Australian story. They were helping write it.
So this award belongs, in no small part, to everyone who has written, spoken, photographed, filmed, read, listened, argued and laughed with us along the way.
A lifetime? Not quite.
There are stories still to tell.
Story of the Week
Fifteen years after Nirbhaya, women in Delhi are still marching for the same basic rights - to move through their own city without fear. Australia has had its own reckoning. But the outrage rises like a flare and falls like one. How many protests, promises and funerals does safety require?
In Other News
Thirty seconds. A 14,000-foot plunge. A captain bleeding on the cockpit floor. What Smit Machchhar did next turned a terrifying flight into one of aviation’s most extraordinary survival stories.
From bootleg Bollywood tapes passed between families to balancing one of Australia’s biggest state budgets, Daniel Mookhey’s story tracks how much Indian-Australian life has changed and where the arguments around migration still haven’t.
MTR, BIBA, Joyalukkas, Bikanervala: names once brought back in suitcases are now opening shops in Australia. But courting the diaspora is one thing; becoming an Australian favourite is another.
Twenty-four hours into the job, Sandy Reddy talks migration, development and the future shape of one of Sydney’s most diverse councils.
A Pakistani spy wakes up patriotic for the wrong country, while Rajinikanth returns to clean up another mess. A new bride may or may not be a witch, an immortal boards a train with a rat (talk about a long-tail journey), and criminal empires keep finding fresh reasons to collapse.
October’s lineup only gets less sensible from here.
Shoutouts
Three members of our community who were elected as Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (ATSE): Robin Khuda (CEO of Airtrunk), Professor Mahananda Dasgupta FAA FTSE and Professor Rajeev Varshney FRS FAA FTSE.
Saanjana Kapoor, who won the KYD Poetry Prize 2026 for her poem ‘The Youth Who Turned into Cockroaches’.
Indian restaurants which were awarded Glasses in Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards: NSW - Nilgiri’s and Manjit’s Wharf (2 Glasses each); VIC - Enter Via Laundry and SAADI (2 Glasses each).
Language campaigner Mala Mehta of Sydney, whose IABBV Hindi School celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
Word on the Street
Interest rates are up. What’s getting the chop first at your place?
In last week’s poll on what technology has made hardest, 71.43% of you said switching off, while 28.57% chose concentrating. No respondents picked making decisions or having a proper conversation.
What’s On
One of Bollywood's most iconic and beloved voices is coming to Sydney and with a career spanning three decades and hits that have defined generations, Sonu Nigam live on stage is not just a concert, it is an experience you will carry with you forever.
For more head to our What’s On page.
Say it Again
I’m a dad now. To a boy, I can teach him what consent means. What respect looks like. That women are people, not prizes. I can teach him to be the guy who makes things uncomfortable when things are wrong.
If he’s ever the one looking at that group chat, I want zero questions in his mind about what he does next.
Until next week,
Indian Link
