Jestine | Albany

“I would say I spend time with someone who’s different every day, actually because I work at Auckland Council, and Auckland Council is quite diverse, in its people. Every day I work with people from all over the world, actually. Pacific Islanders, people from my place, from India.

So, I’ve been enjoying that quite a bit. I really like learning about other cultures. Even now I’m just going into a meeting where I would have people from different countries, and that’s the best thing about Auckland, actually. Auckland is not just about a Kiwi. It’s, it’s more of a global Kiwi thing. 

I’ve been here in Auckland only for five years, and before that I’ve been India my whole life. I’ve come here and learned and experienced quite a bit of different cultures, which has opened up my mind, and also now I’m more encouraged to travel. I want to travel more and actually see and learn a lot more about these different cultures, and maybe of them which I haven’t experienced. 

But I’m originally from India. The southern part of India called Kerala. So, more from a rural sort of setting. So, if you go down, out of Auckland, it’s farmland, right? So, that’s the sort of place I am from. Cattle and all sorts of stuff. I came here in 2014 to do my masters and straight after that I got a job with the Council, and that’s where I work now, I’m a Chartered Accountant. 

What I value most is family because coming from India you have a very tight-knit family. You have something called the co-joined family. You have your cousins, your grandparents all living together. That’s something I miss here, but that’s something I really value, and I would definitely try and keep it up as I grow along.

Being diverse actually brings in quite a few different viewpoints, and creativity into whatever you’re doing. It might be work. It might be studies, whatever it is, but if you’re diverse you get those different viewpoints, and I think that’s quite important in helping us grow and helping Auckland grow, actually bringing in ideas from all over the world, and even, when you travel for a while, then come back to work, and there are things that actually I’ve seen across the world, and think; okay if you implement this in Auckland this would be great. So, stuff like that. People in other parts of the world can actually bring in those ideas, which could help Auckland grow. So, this is not just about Auckland. Anywhere in the world, if you have a variety of people you get a variety of ideas, which might help you grow better.”