Gaurav Garg (41) says there can be some confusion back in his native India about if Ireland is an independent country or not.
“My geography is strong but if you talk to people from India most of the people would still not know that [the UK and Ireland] are separate countries,” Garg says.
However, he believes that Indian people’s knowledge about Ireland has improved since he first moved here from New Delhi in 2019, as Ireland has become a more popular destination for Indian students looking to study abroad.
“The UK and US have become very strict in terms of letting more students in. Though the students still can go, it’s very difficult for them to find a job after. I think after 2021, 2022, a lot of Indian students decided to study in Ireland as it’s cheap and universities have started going and actively recruiting from India.”
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Moving to Dublin was not part of Garg’s plan. He had been working for Google for some time in India and wanted to take on a new role in the company. However, he couldn’t find a role in India that was right for him.
“My parents have always wanted me to go abroad to study and all because my sister is a doctor and she settled in the US. But I thought that I would want to stay in India always.”
He then applied to jobs in English-speaking countries – he applied for different positions in the US, Ireland, the UK and Singapore. “The best role and the best opportunity I could get was in Ireland.”
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Though he and his family had been on holiday to Britain before before, they had never been to Ireland.
“We never went to Ireland because the visa has always been difficult. As it’s not in the Schengen area, that visa doesn’t work. At that time the UK visa also did not work in Ireland. That’s why I think a lot of people don’t have Ireland on their bucket list as they can’t travel there unless they specifically apply for an Irish visa.”
For his first two years in Ireland he worked as an account executive for Google in their sales department.
“I was very good at my job in India but here I did not like my role so much. I felt a little disconnected from what I was doing.”
He started applying for other jobs and interviewed for different companies but wasn’t able to land a new role.
“I felt very trapped in my job at Google but I thought, Let’s try something of my own.”
He decided to set up an online marketplace for people to buy electric bicycles as he had noticed that a lot of people in Dublin had e-bikes.
“I found a developer on Freelancer and asked him to build my website, I didn’t have a clue about website creation. We formed this brand called LetsCycle.ie and we were profitable within the first six months of starting our business.”
Ninety-nine per cent of the people I’ve met and interacted with everywhere in Ireland are really nice
Today the company sells vehicles in 15 different European countries and has a number of different websites in different languages.
Since then Garg has set up a digital marketing agency and last year he started a consulting business that advises UK and Irish businesses on implementing AI solutions.
While he has had much success as an entrepreneur in Ireland, he has faced racism here. In 2020 he was the victim of an assault. He and a friend were sitting outside a pub in Dún Laoghaire celebrating the fact that Garg had just passed his driving test.
“At that time I used to smoke and I [went up to a group of people standing nearby] and I was like, can you give me a lighter? And then he said, ‘Do you want a fight?’ I didn’t know from where but as I was turning back to where my friend was sitting I was punched in the head. I had three fractures in my feet and one fracture in my cheekbone.”
He has been left with long-term damage from this attack. “If I open my mouth the lower jaw will be a little left from the upper jaw.”
However, he doesn’t believe that racism is specific to Ireland: “Racism is a global problem. Even in India if a north Indian will go to south India they will have similar kind of problems. I didn’t think racism is such a big thing until I had an injury which took one, two years to completely heal.”
Even after the attack he never regretted his decision to move to Ireland. “I do not think that I made the wrong decision, I thought that it was just unfortunate that this happened. After all if I look at my life right now it’s much better and business is thankfully doing well.”
With the support of some women who witnessed the attack, Garg filed a report with the gardaí. “The guards actually assisted a lot. They were able to find the right person pretty quickly.”
His attacker was later convicted and received a three-year sentence.
“Right now, you’re listening to a lot of racist things happening against Indians. I think it has been happening for a really long time. It’s just that everything is being reported. So we think that it’s too much. Ninety-nine per cent of the people I’ve met and interacted with everywhere in Ireland are really nice. Like I go to this gym, everybody’s so warm and nice.”
Garg has recently applied for his Irish citizenship and hopes to be made a citizen at a ceremony in December.
“People say that Irish weather is bad. I love Irish weather. I was telling my parents that it was raining today. I’m like, this is the kind of weather we used to love and miss all the time in Delhi.”
We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com or tweet @newtotheparish
