When Amrita Kakka’s husband first arrived in Ireland from Mumbai, he told her: “When I landed I felt I’m seeing everything in three dimensions, literally HD quality”. The clear air contrasted with Mumbai’s haze of air pollution, he said: “Just blue and green everywhere.”
For her, joining him a few years later, the different birds struck her most, along with the urban cityscape, “the different layout in the city. When you pass around, you have these great little houses. In Bombay it’s mostly high-rise buildings and apartments.”
Kakka often refers to Mumbai, population 22 million, by its old name Bombay, “the city of dreams, as they call it in India”. She spent “30 years of my life” there, growing up in the coastal suburb Santa Cruz, before studying for a master’s in environmental sciences and spending six years working as an environmental educator and editor.
She and her husband met trekking six years ago. “We became friends, and then the rest is all good news.” He had long planned on postgraduate study abroad, and went to do computer science at UCD 2021. He’s now a software engineer at an IT company in Ireland. It was cold when she joined him here in February 2024 after their small, colourful wedding “full of traditions and culture”.
They’re both Hindus raised in Mumbai, but from different cultures; he’s Tamil, from south India, and she’s Gujarati. Their mother tongues are different, but they speak two common languages, English and Hindi. In the past, arranged marriages were common in India and marrying outside your cultural group was unusual, but “now it’s pretty much open, and both our parents have been always very frank and supportive. There were no obstacles to convince the families, and both sets of parents were more than happy.”
He decided on Ireland for his master’s because friends who had done so had had positive experiences. That the UCD master’s was one year rather than two was an advantage. Kakka had not visited him during his three years in Ireland, but landed here after they married, in an unknown place, aware “this is where I’ll be staying for a good chunk of my life now”. She knew little about Ireland other than what he told her: that “it’s very nice and a beautiful place. It’s green all the time. It’s the Emerald country. Even if you’re walking around, everyone will just say, ‘Hi, good morning’. That’s very warm and welcoming, especially if you’re coming from another country. You feel you are part of the new place as well, only because of the people.”
Her husband struggled to adapt when he first moved, but he smoothed things for her, “set up the base” before she arrived. “I did not have a lot of hiccups. He has been a very big support system to make me feel here perfect, that I have a comfortable shift from India. He made sure I don’t feel left out, even in the smallest things. For me, everything was simplified. It was like I joined the flowing river.”
But coming to a new country without connections in her field has been difficult. With her master’s and experience, “I falsely assumed finding a job in a new country would take not more than a year. But naive as I was, it now seems like a never-ending process with applications sent out daily but with few interviews. I know absolutely no one in the same field. The struggle to find a job has been very genuine.”
We’ve travelled around the country, and we’ve seen people are very helpful, for example to find vegetarian sources of food
She’s learning about Ireland’s environmental challenges, fascinated by how “hedgerows are a very important part of Ireland’s biodiversity conservation. Back in India, we don’t have hedgerows. I was intrigued to learn about them.” She mentions peatland conservation, UCD’s Waterlands project, and “organisations under An Taisce’s umbrella” such as Green Schools, Clean Coast, Blue Flag beaches. India’s environmental challenges are different, including human-animal conflict, where wildlife threatens humans and livestock near national parks and sanctuaries. Researching Irish environmental issues and organisations is useful for her job-search. “I know there is a lot of scope in working for the environment here.”
Meantime, volunteering is a chance to “meet like-minded people and give something back to the community. That’s my education, my work experience, everything.”
What started as morning walks to the Dodder in Milltown turned into volunteering with the Dodder Action Group for river clean-up activities and participating in citizen-science projects testing river quality. “These citizens I met during the clean-ups have been extremely supportive, empathetic, encouraging and helping me find opportunities. This warm spirit and friendly nature of the Irish makes me feel welcome even among a bunch of strangers.”
While a couple of people have been particularly supportive, making deeper friendships can be challenging – “There are a lot of differences in the topics you would talk about” – and she can be introverted, too.
She misses “social interactions with my family and friends, because here you don’t have a family, so that support system is absent. I came from a place where there’s a lot of friends, lot of groups. Every weekend there’s one group or another group. So coming here, it gets a little lonely sometimes.”
They do lots of video calls, and go to India for a month each year for time with their families.
They have friends in Ireland, mostly Indian people. She’s enjoying a new hobby craft, too, paper quilling. She shows me a delicate jewellery box built of multiple coils of coloured paper.
The biggest difference? “In Bombay, people are always in a hurry. There’s no time. There’s always rushing, because you have a very fast life in Bombay. Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick – you’re late. You have to catch trains, and you don’t get the time to even exchange a ‘Hi’ on the road. That’s the fast pace. Whereas here in Ireland, people do find the time to exchange these basic cordialities and a ‘good morning’ or ‘good evening’, which is warm and nice. People are more friendly here.” But “Bombay people are very helpful, no matter how busy everyone is. That’s a common thing between both. We’ve travelled around the country, and we’ve seen people are very helpful, for example to find vegetarian sources of food.
“This place has not been so cold. Cold, yes, literally, but not the people, who have never been cold or unwelcoming. Giving back to the community would be something that would help me complete, like a circle.”
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com
