Seeking fellow Indians in Istanbul!

Hi,

I am currently based in New York City and heading to Istanbul in the next couple of weeks. My husband is already in Istanbul and is there for a year long assignment with his firm.

It would be lovely to meet & get to know fellow Indians in the area!

If it helps, we've taken up a place in Nişantaşı.

For a brief introduction, I am in the process of writing (and hopefully finishing soon!) my PhD dissertation while being in Istanbul. I also hope to learn the language by taking Turkish lessons!

Looking forward to hearing from others based in and around Istanbul.

Thanks,
Arpita

 

Hi Srividya,

Great to hear from you as well! We are slowly getting a hang of the city and I am definitely in love with it

For now, I am commuting between New York & Istanbul as I am still working on my dissertation but plan to move here more permanently by early May.

Yes, please do keep us in the loop and closer to the time -- if there is anything we can help you out with, we'd be happy to!

What brings you to Istanbul and where will you be coming from?

Talk to you soon!

Arpita

 

Hey Srividya,

Yes, I haven't come across any Indian grocery stores like the ones in other parts of Europe or the U.S. but I did find moong & masoor daal in most stores and also things like coriander, chana, etc.

I'm going to play safe & ferry across some basic spices that we use in our cooking from the U.S. or ask my parents to bring along some when they visit from India. I've heard that the spice market here is amazing & given how exciting Turkish food is -- we're bound to find some great spices there. If the familiar Indian ones are there, then i'll definitely let you know.

Unfortunately, I will not be here next month - I am heading back to New York on 21st March but I will be moving here May 1st week.

I am not sure if you have children in which case, school will definitely be a consideration in choosing your locality, right?

We don't have kids, and have found ourselves an apartment in Nisantasi (where I believe a fair number of expats live) in the European part of Istanbul. Its fairly central, lots of fun and easy to walk to lots of places or take a quick cab.

Main grocery stores include Migros, Carrefour (both of which are across the street from us) and Macros and that probably is my favorite (and about 7-8 minutes walk from our place)! It has an amazing collection of international foods including fresh coriander and tandoori roti. I am yet to look more in depth at the spices/rice/etc situation but it had nice fresh veggies which was great.

Are you guys vegetarian?

As regards my PhD, I am working on the mental health and care-seeking (eg: professional help from psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, or informal networks like social groups or our priests/imams, etc) pathways among immigrant communities (in particular the South Asian community in the NYC/NJ region of U.S.). Its scary and sad how many among us immigrants often have mental health concerns (including depression) that go undiagnosed and untreated and eventually land up in the psychiatric emergency room. My work spans more of psychology, social work and public health. We'll see how it goes!! Clearly I didn't mean to bore you with a mini dissertation right here but I go off on a rambling trail when someone asks me about my work

If any summer travel plans bring us to Stockholm, I'll be sure to let you know and we can meet

Best,
Arpita