Madhumita | Avondale

“I don’t know how much it’ll be exactly a silver lining. I think when I moved here, in New Zealand, I’m from an IT world, so I came here for a specific project, and to be honest, I was always looking back to go home, because I’m from India, and you always want to go to your home country.

So, I thought I’ll just complete this project and I’ll go back, because you know, it’s not your own country, and that’s what the feeling was always. I didn’t have many friends. Nobody, but then things totally changed, after some time, because the kind of hospitality I got from the people over here, they kind of turned my mind all together. And now I would say that’s a silver lining, because out of all the odds it looks like I now call this as my home. So, this has now become positive, and every time I go back,  something other than New Zealand always called me back. You know? So I think out of all the odds, I thought, this has become a positive for me.

This country has changed me totally, as a person, to be honest, because I’ve been a very blunt person. If I don’t like something, I never used to care how the other person will think. I used to be straight forward to the person, and yes, maybe the kind of people I dealt with previously, I kind of was a bit arrogant as well, and I’m very honest about it. But it’s just that when I came here, I’m not the kind of person that will just walk and then smile at the other person. I always expect that if somebody’s smiling at me, either the person is knowing me very well, or that person has some purpose. But here, I’ve seen that even if you’re working and you don’t know the person, even if they’re on a lift, you know, people smile at each other. They ask you how you are and how your day has been, and it makes it comfortable, you know? Makes you feel home. So, I think that’s how I have also changed. My personality has also changed, and I’ve become more friendly to people, and even it also affects me, and has shown up in my work-front as well. I have started taking things easy, as it goes, step by step. 

I’m from India, South-east Asia, and I’m from the capital from India, Delhi, and I was born and brought up in Delhi. I mean, from I think 30 years I have been in India, and after that I moved here. I have a 12-year-old daughter, so she also moved here with me. So we two are here and living happily, yeah.”