All about Indians in Madrid

We moved to Madrid last year. So before coming, we were trying to find out whether there are Indians in Madrid or not. We surfed, posted questions in Quara, looked for pages or groups in Facebook, looked for Instagram hashtags but all in vein. Could not get much info.

So I thought of writing my experience and sharing as it might help other Indians moving to Madrid.Here we go …….

Actually there are quite a number of Indians living in Madrid. Though not in any specific area or locality but all around Madrid (Unlike USA or UK).

Many  Indian communities or groups are there, such as Indian Family in Madrid (IFIM), Indians in madrid  (IIM), Indian Students in Madrid (ISM) etc.  The most prominent one is Indian Sindhi community known as ISAOM .

All these groups are quite active and welcoming.  Have separate whatsapp group and they all organize various get togethers and cultural events at different occasions.

When relocating to Madrid all that one need to look for is-

1.To connect with fellow indians                                                                                                    Join Facebook page named “Indians in Madrid”.(This group was inactive one year back  so we could not find it at first,. But now it is very active and functioning).

https://www.facebook.com/groups/250316002088823/

The Admins are super friendly and active. They keep posting about the latest Indian events.                                                                                                Whatever query you have you can just post in the page and it will be answered  for sure.

Once you join the FB group share your mobile number to join the Whats-app group as well and connected. All the Major Indian festivals are celebrated together.You will definitely make good friends once you start going to the events.

2. To rent a flat/house.

Search in Idealista (Madrid)

Look for a locality that’s close to your workplace. You can save your daily commute time; As public transport connectivity is good across locations, it’s easy to visit city center or anywhere around Madrid on weekends.

Flats listed in idealista are either by direct owners or by real estate agents. So if you wanna save agent’s commission then look for posts by owners only. And also its OK to bargain a bit on rent ;).

3. For Indian groceries.

Well there is a area named “Lavapies” in the city center where you will get all the Indian grocery stuff.  There is one Indian store named “Foodland” which everyone recommends  Address: Calle Amparo, 99, 28012 Madrid, Spain

Few more Asian (Pakistani and Bangladeshi) grocery shops are also there in same area where you can get few of Indian vegetables as well. Just explore Lavapies to know more 🙂

Also there is an online store named “Desi gourmet”. So if you wanna home delivery go for this :https://www.desigourmet.es/

4. Indian restaurants

There are many Indian restaurants in Madrid (Bangladeshi and pakistani people also call their restaurants as Indian restaurants ). Few good indian restaurants are –

• Curry Masala
• Mantra
• Bollywood Tadka
• Bangalore Restaurant
• Swagat Restaurante Indio
• And many more are there…google zindabad 🙂

5. Temples / Gurudwara / Indian Cultural center in Madrid.

• Geeta Ashram Temple ( Taken care by ISAOM- Indian sindhi association of Madrid) – ISAOM’s cultural centre is  the venue for all big Festivals such as Holi, Dandiya, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Diwali, New year celebrations, etc.
• Jhulelal Mandir
• Sai baba mandir
• Iskon Temple

Also there are two gurudwaras as well. As expected, They serve delicious langer every sunday 🙂

• Gurudwara Nanaksar
• Gurudwara Singh Sabha

If you are not very net savvy or active on social media, Temples are great place to meet Indians in Madrid.

6. Indian Movies screenings

All major Indian releases are released in Spain as well. You keep getting the information through whatsapp and Facebook :).

To summarize – 

For an Indian, Madrid is a very good place to live. 🙂

Spanish people are also very friendly and lively. You start learning spanish as soon as you arrive and it will be easy to gel with local people.

DISCLAIMER : This write up is solely based on my personal experience. Aim is to help ANY INDIAN shifting to Madrid. No intentions to promote or defame any group, restaurants, place, community or person. 

I also request others to add any useful informations as comments.