Kashmira Wagh

Kashmira's Life in Germany

Sitting at her dining table on her kitchen island - Kücheninsel – overlooking her balcony, Kashmira Wagh can see the mint plants her mother planted when her parents visited her in Hamburg last year. “I love that they’re thriving,” she says proudly. In her recollection, her mother saved the stems from the fresh mint they bought at the supermarket during her visit and planted them on the balcony before leaving for India.

Finding home in a windy city

It’s a sunny 20 degrees on a late April day in Hamburg where Kashmira has spread her roots just like the mint plants on her balcony. “It’s one of those rare days with bright sunshine,” she says. Hamburg, the north German city that Kashmira has been calling home since 2012, is a windy city with rains aplenty but that doesn’t deter her. “I love my life here and the independence the city offers me. I’m sporty and Hamburg is perfect since it allows the kind of activities I like to build into my life like biking, hiking, and swimming,” she says. Her neighbourhood St. Pauli is lebendig - lively - according to her because of its perennially festive atmosphere.
 
Kashmira moved to Hamburg to work for Google where she is now leading AI-related creative automation projects. In the past decade that she has lived in Germany, she has experienced everything from culture shock to self-inflicted stress about her German skills, all crowned with an incident in Berlin when she was almost run over by a tram on her maiden trip to the country.

The tram that almost ran her over

“It was my first trip to Germany, and I was visiting my friend in Dresden. After landing in Berlin, I had a few hours to kill. So I decided to rent a bike and explore the city on my own,” she says. She knew she had to ride the bike on the right side of the road, unlike in India. Yet before she got her orientation, she found face-to-face with a tram inching closer to her. She saw her life flash before her eyes but survived to tell the tale. “It was a schreckliche Erfahrung (horrific experience),” she recollects over laughter.

Positive culture-shock moments

But not everything was a shockingly near-death experience in Germany. When asked if she experienced any culture shock moments integrating into the workforce when she joined Google, Germany, Kashmira went on to recount another anecdote, calling it a positive culture shock moment. “Google assigned me a colleague as a workplace buddy to show me the ropes of day-to-day life in Germany. She was so efficient, went above and beyond and finished the paperwork for my registration as a resident in Hamburg. When the agency Google hired to help me with my bureaucracy called, they were shocked to learn it’s already been done by my colleague.”

After the initial handholding at work, Kashmira says her sales job meant she had to constantly interact with clients. Though she had basic German skills - thanks to the A2 course at the Goethe-Institut she finished back in Pune, India - Kashmira remembers being panic-stricken, having to use the language. “Even the thought of saying something as simple as, “Schön, sie kennenzulernen,” (nice meeting you) stressed the living daylights out of me,” she says. It took a few more years to overcome her initial fear of being judged and start speaking German confidently.
   

Don’t fear judgement, just speak German!

This is also why Kashmira’s advice to people moving to Germany is: “Please practice your German as soon as you arrive. Give up the fear of being judged by people and just start speaking the language even if it may not be perfect. That’s the best way to learn the language.”

Having been completely swept up by corporate Germany from her early days, Kashmira says she appreciates the Feierabend (end of the workday) culture in the country. “During my first few weeks, I used to want to stay longer at the office and work. But I slowly realised people take their other commitments as seriously as their work. I now understand how it helps with the work-life balance,” she says.

Nostalgia, Heimweh etc.

Living thousands of miles away from home, Kashmira is not immune to pangs of homesickness. While she mostly finds comfort in Indian food – Saravana Bhavan recently opened in Hamburg and she’s quickly added it to her eating-out routine, she delightfully admits – she misses home during festive time. “Once my husband realised I was missing Diwali. He looked up for a Diwali gathering in Hamburg and took me there as a surprise. We made a few friends in the process too. It was a nice way to reconnect with my culture in Germany,” she says.

Perfect vacation tip

 
Kashmira’s travels have taken her all over Germany, but she fondly remembers the time she took a two-week vacation and went to a village called Buchen in Baden to join an “intensiv Fahrschule,” (driving school) so she could finish her driving lessons. “I used to go on long walks in the forests around Buchen and practice my Hochdeutsch (standard German) with the couple that taught me driving,” she says.

Back in Hamburg, where her German is now as perfect as any self-respecting Norddeutscher, she loves bargain deals at the Hamburger Fischmarkt (fish market). “I’ve recently learnt that you could get fish at huge discounts when you visit the Markt (market) at closing time,” she shares, declaring that it’s perhaps a sign that she has become a true Hamburg-erin.

When she’s not drinking mint tea planted by her mother on her balcony, Kashmira has another favourite drink. On her first-ever trip to Dresden, she got to taste Federweiser, a seasonal fresh wine available only for a short period every year, and that remains her favourite drink to date. Between cups of Mint tea and glasses of Federweiser, Kashmira seems to have found the perfect balance between India and Germany.

Rapid Fire with Kashmira

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo: © privat

Prathap Nair is a freelance writer based in Düsseldorf, Germany.