Karthik Setty and Sreema Nallasivam

Karthik & Sreema's Life in Germany

Not Rags to Riches but to Adventure and Perseverance

Though not quite rags to riches, the Düsseldorf based couple Karthik and Sreema’s story is one chock-full of perseverance and adventure that eventually led them down the path of acquiring a life worth calling the German Dream. The upwardly mobile Indian couple from Bangalore quit their jobs in India and started with a clean slate in Germany. What awaited them was a journey of self-discovery and fulfilment.

The couple admits Germany was among many other countries they considered to immigrate. Since Karthik has already had business connections with SAP, a German tech giant, the couple decided to use it as a stepping stone to build their new lives in the country. With a little help from Karthik’s business partner and Sreema’s social connections in navigating the complex bureaucracy crucial for a smooth integration, the couple found themselves slowly being accepted into their adopted country. Just as the economic crisis, ominously dubbed as The Great Recession was fading away, the couple took the leap to move to Germany in 2009. “It was a long time ago,” Karthik recalls. Karthik, who used to work for SAP, came to Germany to branch out but ended up starting out on his own, initially as a subcontracting firm for SAP, with another associate. “We were quite lucky because we had all these projects, despite the recession,” he adds.

Fernweh with a clean slate

What also prompted the couple’s move had to do with their growing itch – a sort of Ferhweh – to get away from everything familiar to them. “We were living in a big joint family and always surrounded by friends and relatives. This made me feel like we didn’t have the opportunity to grow on our own as a couple,” says Sreema. The couple says they started from scratch in their new country. “I think that’s also what we were looking forward to, to start with a clean slate,” she adds.

To equip themselves with life in Germany and to integrate themselves better, the couple hired a private tutor for German language lessons before they left India. They both cleared level A1 before uprooting from India and transplanting themselves in Germany, full of hope, sometimes overshadowed by anxieties.

Empty Kitchens, Uninstalled Flooring

But as Karthik busied himself with apartment hunting in anticipation of Sreema’s arrival, he realised there would be hiccups to settling into his newly rented German home. Nothing could prepare him for the real estate market in Germany where flats are let out with empty kitchens and sometimes even uninstalled floors.

“I found a flat with large windows I liked but the floors weren’t installed, and the kitchen was empty,” Karthik remembers. Raised in a home where everything was provided, Karthik had little idea about installing floors or creating a functional kitchen. “Florian, my business associate, brought his father’s tools and showed me how to lay a laminated floor. I spent two weeks after work and finished the flooring,” Karthik remembers.

The kitchen, daunting as it was, followed suit and bit by bit. Alongside crucial life skills he learned by being his own handyman, Karthik built up his new home that Sreema joined soon in Cologne. “I’m an engineer and I like to build stuff, but it was a love I hadn’t discovered back in India,” he says.

Finding Friends at the Integration Course

The initial days were stressful with Karthik working long hours and Sreema navigating the job market, applying for jobs and finding almost no offers. She started the integration course – required for spouses joining their partners to help them navigate day-to-day lives in German society - that she says helped her scramble together a social circle. “My teacher's assistance greatly facilitated my language skills, enabling me to smoothly enter the job market and secure interviews,” she recalls.

Sreema’s culture shock moment happened only when she started working. “I was stunned to know that you don’t have to work long hours or open your laptop on weekends,” she says. According to her, the work-life balance she encountered at the German workplace was unheard of for someone who had always worked long hours in India.

Meanwhile, as more projects started coming through, Karthik and his associate Florian started their own business called Evora IT Solutions first in Bangalore, a business that soon expanded to German shores, providing digital maintenance and service solutions to clients. “We started with 20-30 people in the first year, now eleven years later, we are 350,” Karthik says. Evora is now headquartered in Germany with operations all over the world.

German Employees = Indian Employees?

For someone who has straddled both worlds as an employer and an employee, Karthik says he finds being an employer a harder task. “We needed to build the brand. In India, our problem was always that people did not want to join us because we were a start-up, and they were concerned about job security and stability.” Whereas brand value is important for Indian employees who will sacrifice their job satisfaction for better pay, Karthik thinks German employees give priority to job fulfilment rather than financial prospects.

“I think this attitude is also enabled by the socio-economic safety net we have in Germany. There are strong protections for workers here but in India, we are still a generation away,” Sreema jumps in. While Karthik’s business flourished, the ambitious Sreema made a name for herself in the German corporate world and grew to hold an influential role as the CEO of the Business Solution Center of Metro.

Expectations vs Reality on speaking German

Even though they are exposed to the German language in daily life, the couple senses that language expectations have changed in the country since their relocation. “There is a big switch I feel. Now in an international city like Düsseldorf, 70% of the time even when you speak German, people automatically switch to English if they realise you’re struggling,” Sreema says.

More than a decade and a half after moving in, the couple feels at home in Düsseldorf. With Karthik running his own software company and Sreema in a high-flying corporate role, their dreams of starting out afresh in Germany became a reality in a decade. Now, they are nothing short of an Indian power couple in a German narrative, a model immigration success story.

Despite keeping busy jobs whose timelines often leech into their private lives, the couple attempt to keep their work and private lives separate. Though they often take time-out to travel the length and breadth of Germany, they are just as content sitting at home opposite each other and playing Settlers of Catan.

“After I moved to Germany, I’ve taken up board games that I play twice a week with a group of friends. In addition, I cycle and play badminton,” says Karthik. Sreema, even as she keeps a busy job that involves frequent international travel, admits she joins him in his board game sessions because the only way for her to relax is to keep her mind occupied. Maybe that’s the challenge that comes with being a power couple!
 

Rapid Fire

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo: © privat

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