Desi City
Jersey City sits directly across the water from Lower Manhattan. Some apartment complexes are so upscale browntown, you can go thirty minutes without seeing anyone non-desi. You know they’re desi because the basketball courts are empty and the squash courts are full. The flyers slipped under doors are for Sri Sri, not Thai. Last night I met someone here who hails from Bandra, right around the corner from where I lived in Bombay.
There’s a Little India nearby where Mira Nair and Gujju ayahs of questionable immigration status alike buy kachoris, dosas and Indian-style pizza. Late at night the Stairmasters are inhabited by brown yuppies laboring away, gazing at the green light at the end of their dock. KANK was filmed on these Manhattan-facing promenades:
Of course, Jersey City offers many other amenities for its techies, such as fast, 30 mbps down/5 mbps up Net connections. Many swear by the themed mailboxes 
on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007, 7:07 pm in Musings, Photos, Tech › 
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when i first moved to ny, i lived in jersey city with family.
i took a walk everyday and ended my day with the view of the 1st picture.
have you been to journal square? there’s a desi street with some good restaurants.
Yup, that’s the Little India I was talking about. The kachoris are divine.
The mailboxes are nationwide, but they are very cute.
What did you mean about Nair - doesn’t she live in Manhattan?
Jersey City - Reprezent!
(Or should I say Commuter City…?? In any case, picture 1 is what I see now..as I type this)
I’m sure desi night scene is good in Jersey City than in Silicon Valley…Here in Silicon Valley we don’t have much desi parties…
Even in movie Kal Ho Na Ho they showed Manhatten water front. I think NY rocks !
Jersey City and Exchange Place are the stock bollywood-movie-set-in-NYC shots. Just saw a ton of it in “Ta Ra Rum Pum”. You know Rani Mukherji was probably all “damn, deja vu!” when they were shooting…
what’s the hot nightclub / bar in jersey city to grip me a chick from the motherland?
I hear Singha’s Pizza is quite the pickup joint on a Friday night. Advertise your ‘five-star jalapeños.’
Check out the Little Pakistan off Grove Street too! Its actually a tale of two desi cities : upscale Yuppie-Fob Delhi/Mumbai Hyderabad on the waterfront; and old-school Guju in the interior.
lovely pictures Manish..vow what a view..love the shadow/reflection of lights in water..
too bad makes me want to move..NY with all the broadway jazz, with indian movies specially the ones we want to see like lions of punjab, activities and views like this one is so tempting..too bad for all of us struck in small cities..
awe sheeeeeet… looks like we may hve to git a JC party on.
reprezent.
s
NY mag declared several issues back that JC was so happening it was already over.
(Wha??)
Filmi, this story?
Manish, yes indeedy.
If you want to read a great rollicking history of one woman’s colorful family in parallel with that of the city (and all those crooked politicians; my favorite is the Gamgemi story, he who has the street that borders the mall named after him), pick up Helene Stapinski’s Five Finger Discount.