From Delhi to Dublin: ‘I ended up making really good friends, they are my safety net’

Nishtha Khanna’s first impressions of Ireland’s capital city were of Joycean design. Before setting off from Delhi to embark on her studies in University College Dublin, Khanna was gifted a copy of James Joyce’s Dubliners by her brother.

“Dublin is so full of culture and history. My brother used to read a lot of novels by Irish writers so I got influenced by that. He used to read a lot of James Joyce and tell me about Dublin. He actually sent me off with a book: Dubliners. There are so many places he has mentioned in his books that you can go and see,” says Khanna, who moved from India in September 2020.

Now working as an assistant financial adviser, Khanna first came to Ireland in pursuit of a master’s in the business field. Studying abroad in Europe appealed to her, and finding a country where she wouldn’t encounter any language barrier was a priority that narrowed down the search.

“When I was choosing my country, it was mostly about the barrier with finding English-speaking countries. The only English-speaking countries were either the UK or Ireland,” says Khanna, adding that Brexit also factored into the equation.