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The rapidly growing Indian community in Selwyn will soon celebrate Diwali, the Festival of Light and the highlight of their year. As part of our Proud To Be Me series, the co-owner of Ratana restaurant, Veena Devi spoke with Coen Lammers about their life in Selwyn and winning the People’s Choice Award at the Selwyn Awards.

“It was a total surprise when they called out our name at the Selwyn Awards,” says Veena Devi, who runs Italian restaurant Ratana in Rolleston with husband Amandeep.

She admits feeling a bit disappointed when the restaurant was not named as the best Start-Up business, because they never expected to get the nod for the coveted People’s Choice Award.

“My husband was still working at the restaurant, so I quickly rang him to come over to the Selwyn Sport Centre to celebrate and get in the photos,” says Veena, who is juggling her duties as a chef, business owner and mother of baby Ivaan, who was only born in August.

Veena and Amandeep arrived in Selwyn nearly three years ago but have been in New Zealand for over a decade and where they met studying Culinary Arts at the Institute of Technology in Rotorua. She says many Indian students made the same journey because the Rotorua Polytechnic was very active in their rural regions to recruit students.

Veena, who hails from Himachal, high in the Himalayas, and Amandeep, from neighbouring Punjab, struck up a friendship in faraway Rotorua, and got married three years ago.

Veena’s older brother Deep, who had been in New Zealand a few years longer, had opened two Italian restaurants in the Sulpher City, and invited the young couple to join the family business.

“When my brother eventually moved to Christchurch, I ended up looking after Giovanni’s restaurant and Amandeep was running Mama Rosa Pizzeria in Rotorua,” says Veena, who adds that having qualified as trained chefs was helpful to secure residency in New Zealand.

Older brother Deep took over the Bicycle Thief in Tai Tapu and soon realised the incredible growth and potential of the Selwyn District and convinced the rest of the family to make the move South as well.

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“Rolleston didn’t have an Italian restaurant, so it was real gap in the market,” says Veena, who is grateful the local community have supported their business, and over 5000 people voted to give the restaurant the People’s Choice Award.

Aside from their business success, the young couple loves their new home in the South Island.

“We have bought a home, and want to raise our family here now,” says Veena, who has plenty of family support with her mother, two brothers and brother-in-law also living and working in the Selwyn District.

Hospitality jobs are infamous for their unsocial hours, but Veena says her family loves the rhythm.

“We have most of the day to ourselves to do other things before we open the restaurant, and it also helps that Kiwis like to eat early. In India or other parts of the world, people have dinner much later, so you have to work much longer days. Here we have a much better work-life balance.”

Deeva explains that only a few years ago, she would barely see another Indian person in the street in New Zealand, but these days Indian immigrants are part of numerous Selwyn businesses, agencies, trades, sports clubs and several candidates with Indian roots have put their hand up to be elected to the local council.

“Unfortunately, we have not met as many other Indian people as we would have liked because we normally work the weekends when other people get together for birthdays and parties,” says Veena.

“But I never miss Diwali. We always close our restaurant for that, because we wait for it all year, that is the big highlight of the year,” smiles Veena.

Diwali is the celebrated by Indians all around the world to commemorate Lord Rama finishing 14 years in exile and legend says that local people all lit their fires to welcome him home, hence the Festival of Light.

“There will be firecrackers, dancing and lots of food. In India, you would go to all your neighbours to share food and celebrate, but here we celebrate together as a community,” says Veena, who really enjoyed non-Indian locals joining the celebrations and performing with traditional Indian music.

While they miss the close-nit neighbourhood life in India, Veena and her family have well and truly embraced their new home.

“Life is so much nicer and easier here. In India, life is a lot harder, and it takes a lot of effort to get things done. People have been very welcoming and have supported our business, so we look forward to raising our son in Selwyn.”

Last modified: 21 Oct 2025 11:33am