An immigrant’s Diwali in Dublin

One of the elements of the expat or the immigrant life is the longing and the loneliness. The longing for friends and family who live in another part of the world, the loneliness - at least initially when you don't know a lot of people and miss the deep friendships that you once had. And so, when a festival comes up, you wish for both - companionship and friends to celebrate the good days, to revel in shared customs and traditions and to repeat over a hundred times how one misses the home that one has left behind.

Experiencing the Culture Night in Dublin

Walking tours, taster dance classes, musical performances, literary readings, immersive cinema, open air concerts - the Culture Night in Dublin had so many things on offer and everything was free. And if you were lucky like us, the night had many other unintended surprises, like a grinning young man, randomly approaching you and asking if you had any weed please?

What’s Onam? What’s happening in this part of Dublin?

There's something about a feast that is served on a banana leaf, with as much as 26 different varieties of food, all vegetarian and to have people serving you with a lot of love and affection. It is for this feast of Onam sadya, that we took a bus, wearing our traditional Indian outfits with husbands and children in tow, and head to the North of Dublin. Because how can one possibly resist a feast so divine?

It was a Maltese sunset in my balcony

The day after my husband's birthday, a magical sunset burst into the sky. As we watched the colours leaking out to the skies, it brought back memories of our holiday in Malta and how we almost missed our last bus to our Airbnb because we stopped to take in a sunset.

A crate of something cool

It's really fascinating how memory works - how something reminds you of an incident that dates back to a decade or more, how a seemingly random event can trigger an avalanche of memories from long ago. Take for instance what happened yesterday. We had been to an Indian store in Dublin, a store called Ingredients. … Continue reading A crate of something cool →

I caught a glimpse of the sea

It was framed in a window. As if someone had said 'pause' or 'freeze' as a part of a game, and it had indeed paused. The cloak of blue, spread out, frozen in mid motion. The day before we were to start living in our rented apartment in Dublin, we took a cab and moved … Continue reading I caught a glimpse of the sea →

The second bedroom

Today, we got the keys to the apartment we will be renting in Dublin. It has a 'proper' second bedroom - something we had wanted but never had in the last five years in the United Kingdom. My husband looks at the second bedroom and says, now when we fight we will both have a bedroom each to sulk. It makes me laugh for I had forgotten that not having one in the past meant that we always shared the bed no matter how much we had fought in the day...

Who says hello to me in a brand new town and country?

I step into the Luas. It's about 12.20 in the noon. As I make my way towards where I think I might find an empty seat, someone says 'hello.' I am taken aback. I am about two and half weeks old in the city and the country. We live in a service apartment and we … Continue reading Who says hello to me in a brand new town and country? →

A little bit of kindness

Is so powerful. And so uplifting. It's beautiful to be able to give and receive kindness and that is what I am going to write about today. Yesterday, we went shopping for an umbrella. We ventured a bit further away from where we are currently placed (Sandyford) - to a shopping mall in Blackrock. On … Continue reading A little bit of kindness →

First evening in Dublin

It was our first evening in Dublin. My husband had accepted a job in Ireland, without either of us ever setting foot in the country before. When we reached the service apartment where we were to spend our first ever night in Ireland, we couldn't get anyone to let us in. It would have been a very sad evening if it wasn't for the warmth and friendly banter of the Irish taxi driver who had driven us from the airport to the service apartment and welcomed us to our new life...