In 2019, Megha Goswami gatecrashed a birthday party while at her university in Finland. She didn’t expect to find anything, besides some cake. Five years later, she tied the knot with the birthday boy Kristaps Kovalonoks, merging their Bengali and Latvian cultures, and writing a new chapter in a love story that is only getting started. Since 2020, the duo of Megha and Kristaps have also been at the helm of Couple of Expats (@couple_of_expats) a vlog on Instagram and YouTube, where they talk about building a life in Finland as immigrants. My Kolkata spoke to the couple about their lives, their love story, and journey as content creators.
Love forged by cheesecake
Born in Kolkata, Megha’s childhood was divided between Taiwan, the US, Jammu and her hometown. After completing her undergrad in Bengaluru, she moved to Finland to study biomedical sciences. Kristaps is from the Latvian capital Riga, and also moved to Finland to study Finno-Ugric languages. Incidentally, both landed up at the University of Turku, in the southwestern Finnish city of the same name.
After a year of friendship, the pair finally took their first trip together to Poland in 2020, bonding over food, travel and creating content @couple_of_expats
One evening in 2019, Megha decided to tag along with a few of her peers, for a birthday party. “She was the only person who came without a gift. A year later, she told me that she was my gift,” smiled Kristaps, recollecting the couple’s first meeting.
This started a friendship that only got stronger. Both of them were volunteer ambassadors for the varsity, and created content individually around their lives as international students. What really played cupid, however, was food! “We Bengalis are notoriously well known for our love for food. He was quite skilled in the kitchen and would invite me for three-course meals. Eventually, he won my heart with food,” said Megha reminiscing while Kristaps added that the highlight was his Oreo cheesecake. “She loves desserts, and I love baking.” By Kristaps’ next birthday, they took their first trip abroad to Poland, and finally started dating.
Kosha mangsho and Christmas desserts
Within a few months, they decided to move in together. Megha first told her parents about Kristaps at this time. “It was quite the bombshell,” Kristaps chuckled as Megha explained the experience, “Initially I was scared about telling them, but they were surprisingly supportive. I also think what softened the blow was the pandemic starting. Things were a bit awkward until they met him, and then they absolutely loved him!”
Their wedding party in Kolkata proved to be a great opportunity for Kristaps’ family to immerse themselves in Bengali culture Qpidindia
Strong family ties are a major unifier between their distinct cultures. Both Megha and Kristaps are very rooted to their family, and their mutual love for food has reinforced this. “His mom is a great cook, and she puts together adorable Christmas feasts. I also love her desserts and homemade jams,” said Megha. Kristaps has similar stories. “Before meeting her, I hadn’t experienced Indian cuisine, but now I feel like an Indian already. We make Indian food quite often. We enjoy bridging the gap between our cultures through food. Once at a dinner, the kosha mangsho was too spicy for Megha’s mom, so she gave it to me!”
The families are also trying to bridge the language barrier in innovative ways. Kristaps’ parents couldn’t speak English and initially faced problems in communicating with Megha. Over the years, they have tried to learn English. Megha’s father has shown equal enthusiasm in learning Latvian, just to connect with Kristaps. He has a Latvain dictionary and notebook, and Kristaps gifted him a beginner’s guide to the language.
A big fat Bengali wedding
The couple got engaged during a trip to Algarve, Portugal in 2022 @couple_of_expats
The couple got engaged in Portugal in 2022 after a sunny tour of the cliffs of Algarve, which ended with him bending the knee, holding up a ring which was custom designed with special Latvian symbols. They made it official in a civil ceremony at Turku, with Kristaps’ family in attendance.
Oblivious to the Bengali jamai babu treatment, Kristaps for in for a surprise as the wedding planning began for the Bengali ceremony in India. Megha confessed that her parents were planning their wedding even before the proposal. When both sets of parents met for the first time in Europe, her father enthusiastically unveiled his plans of a grand wedding in India! “We wanted to start a life together, and not just have a big party. At the same time, we were respectful of how much this meant to our parents. We tried to balance what we wanted with what our parents were hoping for, because we knew that the Indian wedding party had a lot of hopes and dreams of both families coming together,” she said.
After a year and half of meticulous planning, their stories finally converged in Kolkata in February 2024. The Kovalonoks hadn’t travelled abroad for 29 years, and they made sure to give them a warm welcome in Kolkata. “The last time they had boarded a plane was for their own honeymoon, so this was a huge moment for them! To make the wedding party more inclusive, we chose a colour palette based on the Latvian flag. When my parents entered the hall, they felt right at home. We also installed a huge screen that played clips from both our parents’ weddings, our childhoods, and our story together. It was a 30-year journey that made people cry,” said Kristaps grinning.
This was also his first time in India, and he embraced the madness. “Indians can be a bit chaotic sometimes, and my favourite Bengali word is pagol for a reason! Over two weeks, I got to meet Megha’s 100-plus relatives, and have my favourite Indian dish, macher paturi!” Usually, people have to worry about whether their spouse will get along with everyone, but Megha said she didn’t have to. “He got along so well with people that it was impossible to tell that he had never met them before. Everyone loved him, and I could just enjoy.” A huge smile broke through Megha’s face as she recounted how she told all her relatives to make the food less spicy for Kristaps, only for him to tell her after the ceremony, that it could have been spicier!
In between the hectic schedule of the wedding, they didn’t get time to explore India as much as they’d have liked and Kristaps wants to return to do that soon. They also didn’t get enough time to document their India trip, something they hope to remedy the next time they’re here. For now, they have an exciting 2024 content calendar planned, with over a 100 video ideas ready to shoot for YouTube.
Couple of expats
Early into their relationship, the couple noticed that they had a great working relationship, with complementary skill sets. Given that they had both created content individually in the past, they decided to join hands for a second innings. Thus, Couple of Expats was born in August 2020.
They began with sharing their culinary journey but “soon realised that we were missing out on a big part of our identities, and made the decision to change course. We wanted to help expats like us,” Megha explained. Through social media content on Couple of Expats, the duo try to address things like studying, working and living in Finland. “Finland ranked as the happiest country in the world for five years in a row. Every year, Finnish universities and companies get more international applicants. India and Finland particularly have a symbiotic relationship, which is just beginning, and many Indians want to know how to start a life here. We want to make videos that help them navigate scholarships, residence, the weather, networking, and setting up a career,” she added.
However, managing a busy content calendar can be a task, since both have demanding full-time jobs. While Megha works as a marketing coordinator for a health tech company, Kristaps is working as the coordinator of global engagement at Aalto University. The curiosity of their followers is also a challenge for content creation, as they often get comments asking about their story and culture. “They want to see our real side,” said Kristaps, adding that he and Megha are private people, so there is hesitation in talking about their personal life. “We appreciate the value in authenticity, and going forward, we want to share more about our multicultural relationship,” said Megha.
But what prompts them to balance hectic jobs with content creation? “When most people move abroad as immigrants, the furthest they dare to dream is to find a respectable job and sustain themselves. Establishing our brand is difficult, because at the end of the day, we’re still immigrants. But, we are ready to run towards our dreams, without holding back,” Megha signed off.
