Satinderjit Kaur was just 25, newly married, a student sent by her family from the northern state of Punjab, like tens of thousands of others, to make her fortune in Australia.
But according to Phulvander Jit Singh Grewal, the leader of the Sikh temple in Craigieburn, she is also the seventh Indian student to die by suicide in Melbourne in the past six months.
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Her husband, Harpinder, remains in shock. Often he goes into the bedroom holding his wedding photographs, and cries.
The household of students in the outer western suburb of Delahey is mystified by Satinderjit’s death. ”She was always happy, always happy,” says housemate Tejinder.
But the couple were under pressure. The baby, Gurnoor Singh Sadra, now four months old, was born small, with heart and blood sugar problems. He had been in and out of hospital.
Money was ”very tight”. Harpinder worked while his wife studied computer printing and graphics, but his spouse visa limited him to 20 hours a week of work, and his job at a meat processing factory brought in just $280 per week, not nearly enough to pay the bills.
Encouraged by education agents promising a new life in the land of opportunity, the couple had a year earlier borrowed ”five lakh rupees” – about $12,000, and ”very big money in India” – to come to live the Australian dream. But living here was more expensive than they were told, and the debt weighed on them. They had paid nothing back.