Growing Up in the UAE: An Indian Marketer’s Journey from Childhood to Belonging
From childhood to career, Aishwarya Shetty shares how the UAE became a place of safety, community, and opportunity.
- Publish date: since 2 hour Reading time: two min read
For Aishwarya Shetty, the UAE has always been home, even before she could fully grasp what that meant. Arriving in 2004 at the age of five, she doesn’t remember her first impressions. What she does remember, decades later, is the steadfast feeling of belonging that has shaped every stage of her life.
“My parents built their life here. We grew our family here. I created my own circle of friends and connections from all over the world while growing up,” she says. “The UAE has been a constant in my life for decades—it’s where we built our home, our routines, our memories.”
Unlike many who arrive as adults in search of opportunity, Aishwarya grew up alongside the country itself. She watched it expand, modernize, and embrace diversity, all while she navigated school, friendships, and her first steps into adulthood. “It gave me space to interact with different cultures, to understand communication differences across regions, and to explore career opportunities,” she reflects. The UAE offered her a canvas to learn, grow, and connect.
Safety, she notes, is what makes the UAE feel like home in the most profound sense. “The government protects us all, and everybody in this country is treated equally. That feeling of security allows you to thrive without fear, and that’s rare anywhere else in the world,” she explains.
Aishwarya sums up her experience in three words: kind, secure, and home. Simple words, yet they carry the weight of years of lived experience, of building life alongside a community that welcomed her family and hers in return.
Her story is punctuated by small, powerful moments that define what home truly means. “Every time we visit our home country, we talk about coming back soon. The UAE has always been home for my family. We feel more connected to this country than what our passports state.” It’s a sentiment rooted not in documentation or nationality, but in decades of daily life, relationships, and shared experiences.
For Aishwarya, the UAE is more than a place to live—it is the backdrop of her childhood, the foundation of her career, and the anchor of her identity. It’s a home she has grown into, shaped alongside the country itself, and one she knows she will carry with her wherever life takes her.