New Jersey is home to a lot of Indian-Americans.
By our reckoning, there must be at least a few hundred thousand people of Indian origin in New Jersey.
A big chunk of Indians live in Middlesex and Bergen counties.
To cater to the growing Indian community, plenty of Indian businesses including restaurants, grocery stores, fashion stores, jewelers, travel agents and so on have cropped up in Edison, Iselin, Jersey City, South Plainfield and other New Jersey cities.
As Indians start to establish deep roots in New Jersey, some of them are also venturing into mainstream businesses like car dealerships, law firms, auto-repair shops and pharmacies.
There are a bunch of
desi auto repair shops in Iselin, Edison and South Plainsfield and several Indians have branched out into used car sales.
And Indian lawyers in New Jersey are increasingly visible in handling both immigration and civil cases.
While the majority of Indians are engaged in blue collar jobs at motels and fast-food restaurants, there's also a significant bunch working as software programmers and pharmaceutical researchers.
Besides the Indian restaurants, clothing and jewelry stores there are several Hindu Temples and Gurdwaras to cater to spiritual needs of the growing Indian community.
Sri Venkateswara Temple780 Old Farm Rd, Bridgewater, NJ 08807
(Click here for
more pictures of Bridgewater Venkateswara Temple)
Balaji Temple in Bridgewater,
Swaminarayan Temples in Cherry Hill, Somerset and Edison, and Gurdwaras in Deptford, Mercerville and Bridgewater are some of the prominent Indian religious institutions in New Jersey.
Bollywood Movies
Hey, the Indian community is so large in New Jersey that the mainstream American cinema houses like
Regal Commerce Center in North Brunswick, South Plainfield and Burlington, and AMC in New Brunswick, Jersey City, Elizabeth and Multiplex Cinemas in East Windsor screen Hindi, Tamil, Telugu movies week after week.
There are also two Indian cinema houses on Oak Tree Road in Edison (Big Cinemas Movie City) and on Kennedy Blvd in North Bergen (Big Cinemas) that screen almost every new Hindi, Telugu and Tamil movie.
Whether it's Salman Khan's Dabangg 2, Ek Tha Tiger, the Telugu film Ongole Gitta, SVSC or Tamil star Kamal Haasan's Vishwaroopam, you can be sure the movie will release in New Jersey on the same date as India.
Your best starting point before you explore the many splendors of Indian cuisine and culture is
NJIndia.us with its reviews of several restaurants in the area, Hindi and Tamil movie reviews and more.
Whether you're craving Hyderabad Dum Biryani, Pongal, Chicken Chettinad, Samosa Chaat, Andhra Tandoori Chicken, Pesarattu or just looking to buy Binny Silk Sarees or Sherwanis, Churidars or gold jewelry, costume jewelry, or eyeing cheap tickets to go home to India in New Jersey, start your exploration with
NJIndia.us.