In 2018, Asha arrived in Hong Kong six months after the birth of her second child. The move was driven mainly by her husband’s internal job transfer and the professional opportunities that came with it. Yet for Asha, the transition was far from easy.

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She spent more than a year looking for work. Her husband and children settled into their own routines, but she felt she was getting nowhere. There were only so many hikes she could take and only so many visits to the art centre. At that point she felt "a little useless"—as if she were doing nothing. She would tell herself, “I’m a smart woman. Why won’t anyone even give me an interview? I promise you, you’ll take me.” Alongside the doubts and frustration came a quiet jealousy. She watched friends being promoted, achieving new successes, and making an impact in their fields. She did not want to sit on the sidelines. She still had ambitions and ideals she wanted to fulfil. In moments of anger she would think, “You’re not taking that from me.” Job postings that read “Mandatory Chinese speaker,” “Mandatory Mandarin speaker,” or “Cantonese speaker preferred” became the biggest obstacles. Because of these language requirements, many roles were simply closed to her. The frustration was sharp when she mentioned that, in India it would have been easier. In Bombay she knew enough people that someone would usually recommend her. In Hong Kong she had not yet built that network. She arrived in mid-2018; 2019 brought the protests and widespread disruption; 2020 brought Covid.

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By then she still had not formed her own circle or fully settled in the city. Moving to Hong Kong brought better quality of life, family stability, and global opportunities. Yet the move was also precarious. The same structures that promised opportunity could close doors. Language requirements excluded her, networks took years to build, and events like protests and a pandemic stalled integration. Privilege gave comfort, but precarity lingered the uncertainty of belonging, the struggle to find meaningful work, and the quiet fear of being left behind in a city that moved too quickly.

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As time went by and her children grew older, she felt an urge to try again. That sense of possibility led her to join a women’s return‑to‑work programme, with all the hard work, she seized the opportunity it offered. Since then, she has been working with passion, building a career filled with the sense of purpose she had long been searching for. 

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