Sunny and Ram have been in St Leonards since 2021, having bought a traditional Italian café, and naming it Two Daughters in honour of their own daughters. Since then they’ve added traditional Indian food from their Punjabi heritage to the menu and created a sense of community with their generosity and hospitality. It’s been eighteen years since Sunny and Ram migrated to Australia from India in search of ‘a good future for themselves and their family and to live peacefully.’ With a whole lot of faith, strength through the challenges, gratitude and hard work, they are making that hope a reality – and giving every bit as much and more to the people and communities around them.
Both Sunny and Ram were born in Punjab, a state in the northwestern part of India. The Punjabi region is culturally diverse and agriculturally rich with an ancient and complex history dating from the Bronze Age through to modern era partitioning following India’s independence (1947) and more recent divisions along language lines (1966). Like most of the Punjabi population, Sunny and Ram practice the Sikh religion, a faith that shapes everything they do and believe in- their sense of community, generosity and the equality of all. They also speak three languages: their mother-tongue Punjabi, Hindi which is the national language of India, and English.
They both grew up in families who had been farmers for many generations in an area renowned as the country’s ‘breadbasket.’ With ‘no future in (small scale) farming’ and the universal trend of young people leaving the rural life, Ram and Sunny were each encouraged by their parents to ‘move to the city to get an education’, and ‘pursue a more prosperous life.’ Their parallel lives came together when they met while attending university in Chandigarh. Sunny graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and went on to work in a bank. Ram graduated with a Bachelor of Computer Applications.
Not long after Ram graduated she and Sunny married. It was a seven-day ceremony, which Sunny describes as having the splendor and just as many people as a ‘Bollywood movie.’ They didn’t tell their parents of their plans to migrate until after the wedding. Ram’s father was not keen on the idea, but when he passed away four years later, and with her mother’s blessing, the move was made a little easier. But still, leaving family and all that is familiar was a difficult thing to do.
Ram says, ‘we started in Australia completely on our own, there was no-one here we knew or a Punjabi community we knew of, and no social media like there is now to help connect with people and navigate a new country. There were times when I wondered why we’d come. At first, we lived in Heidelberg Heights and later moved to Bacchus Marsh, which is where we are still.’
Ram explains that at the time they migrated the trend among young people was to move overseas as there were limited career opportunities in India. She says that trend and situation has now reversed. They came on visas to work in hospitality as this was the most accessible option and for Ram there was no course matching her Bachelor of Computer Applications in Australia at the time for her to upgrade or convert her qualifications. As for Sunny, a Bachelor of Arts is a broad brush in any country, so he too went into the hospitality industry, while maintaining a keen interest in the social and political happenings around him – as well as tractors, in case anyone was wondering why there are so many pictures of them on the walls.
While ‘working for free for six months to get experience’, Ram completed an Advanced Diploma in Hospitality. The conditions of the visa required that she work in the same field as she had studied for a minimum of two years and have an employer to sponsor her before they could apply for permanent residency.
Ram first worked at Cellini’s in Heidelberg and later as Head Chef at Flannigans an Irish Pub in Bacchus Marsh, while Sunny worked at Chef’s Hat in South Melbourne. Ram stayed for eight years at Flannigans cooking both Irish and Indian meals. In 2011 the owner of Flannigans sponsored the family in their application for permanent residency and in 2012 it was granted. Sunny and Ram are now paying forward this opportunity by sponsoring Roy, who works with them at Two Daughters, in his application for permanent residency.
Their first daughter Ashmeen was three years old when they made the move to Australia in 2008. Eighteen years later Ashmeen, who was already well advanced in her education (given school starts at the age of three for children in India) is now at Monash University studying Bio Medicine. Their younger daughter Amol was born in 2016 and is now getting ready to complete Year Four at Bacchus Marsh Grammar. For a while there Amol thought she would join the police force when she finishes school, but that is an idea likely to change many times between now and then. The possibilities are endless, underscoring one of the reasons Ram and Sunny decided to migrate to Australia.
The original plan was to come for a few years, ‘but now our daughters have grown up here and this is all they know, this is their home. While it is important for them to be connected to their grandmothers and Indian culture, and they can speak the language, India is not a familiar place to them. Besides, we like it here and we’re too old to move.’ Though said half-jokingly, there is clearly some sadness in saying this as Ram’s family, her mum and brother and all other relatives are still in India and she misses them. Ram worries sometimes that her daughters won’t feel connected with their Indian heritage. It is a little different for Sunny whose sister lives in New Zealand and other relatives are in Adelaide. Tragically Sunny’s father suffered a heart attack and died while in Australia on holiday just before COVID was about to take a hold of the country and close its borders. ‘We had a ceremony at the Altona Crematorium, but it was really hard on my mother who then had to go home alone.’ His mother now spends equal time between Australia, New Zealand and India.
In 2018, one of Sunny’s friends took over a motel in the tiny town of Edenhope (population 946) on the Wimmera Highway, close to the South Australian border. Sunny and Ram, along with their two daughters, followed soon after to help run the business and open the kitchen serving up a combination of country motel mainstays (crumbed everything) and Indian food. They stayed for a year and in that time started looking for a business of their own. Sunny loved Edenhope’s incredibly ‘friendly and welcoming’ community.
With equal parts of humor and trepidation, Ram describes how they’d looked at a few places, searching on-line when Pucci’s café in St Leonards came up for sale. They admit to never having heard of St Leonards but came to have a look all the same. Realising how far it was from Bacchus Marsh Ram said to Sunny ‘don’t you dare say yes’, but she says ‘destiny made it happen’ and everything fell into place as if it was meant to be.
Sunny says when they first opened as Two Daughters he had a sense that people were avoiding the place. He has wondered out loud if they might be St Leonards’ first Indian business – chances are this is possible, at least the first since the Indian Hawkers plied their trade in the area around the late 1800s.
Sunny took to standing out the front of the cafe to meet people and introduce himself and after that, he says people started coming in. An assortment of loyal regulars have also established themselves; among them a group of older gentleman whose in-joke name is ‘the intellectuals,’ the ‘coffee ladies’, the ‘Lifestyle lot’ and Sunny’s ‘Aussie mothers’ who in-turn refer to him as their ‘Punjabi son’. Breakfasts and brunches are also busier and the Indian menu is growing in popularity. All the Indian dishes made at Two Daughters draw on the traditions of the Punjab region. ‘They are the recipes I have grown up with and knowing how to make them is in your blood‘, Ram says, ‘though I have needed to call and ask my mum sometimes.’ The recipes are also adapted to suit local tastes, as traditionally the dishes are vegetarian, and a touch spicier and hotter. The practice of making recipes based on the food that is grown locally and seasonally also remains strong.
Ram loves cooking, and when preparing dishes she ‘always thinks of putting the food on the plate – it’s like giving to family.’ They are generous hosts, always keen to make a dish to a customer’s particular liking and making sure you take home anything left on your plate that you couldn’t quite fit in. Sunny cannot cope with wasted food, ‘thinking of how many people there are in the world that are hungry and would be lucky to have one meal a day.’ It’s a tradition that readers might be aware of through the Sikh community providing free vegetarian meals to those in need and in times of crisis, like bushfires.
Sunny is very proud to have become an Australian citizen in 2014, but also reflects on how, as a migrant ‘making a good future is harder’ and how citizenship has not made them immune to racism, which both hurts and bewilders him. ‘I believe we want the same things as everyone else; to give our children a good future, to earn a living, to have a home, to be well, to be a part of a community – still acceptance doesn’t come automatically or easily. You have to be careful about what you say to avoid conflict, stay silent and put up with it (racist comments), and you can’t afford to make a mistake or upset people.’ Despite this he is ‘one hundred percent’ loyal to Australia. He appreciates that there are the ‘same laws for everyone, and the systems and processes to implement them; that it is safe; that there are opportunities’ and much more that those who have grown up with it, can ‘take for granted.’ ‘This is where I belong’ he says. I’m thankful to Australia for having us and for our future.’
When they first came to St Leonards there was a plan to move here, however their youngest daughter’s life, school, sport and friends are all in Bacchus Marsh. Instead they make the arduous and often dangerous one hour and twenty minutes each-way trip via the back-roads dodging kangaroos. This makes for some very early starts and long days. Sunny says the kangaroos know his car now and avoid it. Working hard is something they are prepared to do to make their search for a good future a reality.
And so, though not always easy, understood or appreciated, Ram and Sunny have shown that it is possible to embrace the opportunities and be proud of the new life they’ve created in Australia, while honouring the place, traditions and faith of their origins. Through the food they serve and the welcome they offer, they share that heritage with the community and make St Leonards that little bit richer and that little bit kinder.
