When Jagruti Devasthali arrived in Luxembourg in 2019, she thought she knew what her future looked like. She believed she was putting her legal career on hold – not leaving it behind.
Born and raised in Mumbai, Devasthali studied law at the University of Mumbai before completing a master's degree in Intellectual Property Rights. She spent around seven years working in law, handling civil and property disputes, compliance and insurance matters.
She later took on a senior legal management role with the State Bank of India, covering legal matters across Maharashtra.
Law was never an accidental career choice. Devasthali had decided at school that she wanted to become a lawyer.
"I genuinely thought law was where I belonged", she says. "It felt like a field that let me look at the world from many angles."
Her interest in helping others had started long before she left India. She had helped organise camps for orphanages and old-age homes, and saw law as another way to serve people.
Devasthali's husband was completing his master's in Germany, and a year before their wedding they had imagined building their life in Germany. She had even begun exploring further studies.
Luxembourg was not the original plan. The couple had expected to build their life in Berlin.
Then, two months before their wedding, her husband received a job offer in Luxembourg. "Everything changed on fairly short notice", she recalls.
The decision was not easy. She had already begun imagining her professional life in Berlin. Moving to Luxembourg meant starting over.
There was another complication: language. She quickly realised how important French would be, both in everyday life and at work.
After building a legal career in a familiar language and legal system in India, she found that she could no longer practise in the same way.
For someone trained in law, language was not just useful but essential. "In law, you need to communicate with people confidently. A basic knowledge of French was not enough."
Continuing her legal career in Luxembourg was not straightforward. Devasthali's Indian law qualification did not directly allow her to practise, and the legal systems between India and Luxembourg were very different.
"I had trained for seven years to become a lawyer, and suddenly that qualification wasn't something I could just take with me", she says.
There was also a difference in professional culture. Her experience in India had largely involved individual clients and legal practice, while Luxembourg's legal sector is more internationally oriented and corporate.
Together, the language barrier and unfamiliar legal system made returning to law difficult.
Leaving law behind was more than a professional setback. "It wasn't just how I earned a living. It was tied to a sense of purpose I'd had. I wouldn't say I lost confidence, but I definitely lost a sense of identity. I had spent years becoming a lawyer, and suddenly I had to ask myself: what else can I do?"
Then came COVID-19. Like many newcomers, she found herself isolated, unable to travel home, and uncertain about what came next. With travel restrictions keeping her away from family in India and professional opportunities limited, she began to think about what life might look like beyond law.
During lockdown, she started cooking for friends. Their reactions to her food surprised and motivated her.
She also began to notice a gap in Luxembourg's food scene: the Indian food she knew from Mumbai was difficult to find.
She had grown up in Mumbai, a city where food changes from one neighbourhood to the next and where India's enormous regional diversity is visible on the streets. Dishes, flavours, and traditions that had always seemed ordinary to her were largely unfamiliar to people in Luxembourg.
When lockdown restrictions eased, she approached a food festival in Réckange with a pitch for an Indian street-food stall. Rather than serving only familiar dishes, she wanted to introduce people to the food she had grown up with in Mumbai.
Among them was vada pav, the Mumbai street-food staple she believes she was among the first to introduce to Luxembourg's food-festival scene.
The response gave her the confidence to continue. More festivals followed, then a tiffin delivery service and, eventually, a food truck.
She named it Mumbai Masala, after the city that had shaped both her palate and her identity.
She says there was no elaborate business plan at the beginning. She learned by doing, figuring out the business one step at a time.
In December 2025, she opened her first restaurant, Mumbai Flavors, in Luxembourg. The idea was to move beyond the narrow image of Indian cuisine.
Her experience has also changed how she sees the challenges faced by accompanying spouses. She says accompanying spouses often face an invisible challenge: while one partner arrives with a job opportunity, the other often has to rebuild their own professional identity from scratch.
Her advice to others who move abroad because of a partner's career is simple. "Find what genuinely interests you. Do your research, understand the market and don't give up. Luxembourg has people and institutions willing to support you."
She believes the challenges faced by accompanying spouses are often underestimated. "People often say, 'How lucky you are, you get to live abroad.' But rebuilding a career from nothing, away from your family and everything familiar, is not easy."
Today, she still identifies deeply as Indian. Her food is a connection to Mumbai, her childhood, and her culture.
But Luxembourg has become part of her story too: "My heart will always be Indian, but Luxembourg gave me the opportunity to rebuild my life and create something I never imagined."
Food is now her profession, but she has not left law entirely behind. She continues to read, learn, and explore academic work alongside running her businesses.
