Our Trip to "Little India" in New Jersey

The One-stop Shopping Place for Everything Indian!

If you love India and Indian things like I do and you happen to be visiting Iselin/Edison, New Jersey, you need to visit “Little India”. With wall-to-wall shops and restaurants all on the famous Oak Tree Road (Center) and the interspersed side streets, plan on making it an all day affair; better yet a weekend excursion. For our convenience and yours, we found this Web site very helpful in knowing what to do and what not to do. (http://www.indianj.com/oaktree/default.asp)

Three of my friends and myself (all non-Indian but true Indophiles) spent a few days in Iselin, back in June. We were beside ourselves and over the moon, as they say, to have before us so many shops and vendors selling everything Indian. We started at one end, visiting every shop on one side of the street, crossing over and doing the same on the opposite side, while trying not to miss any shops on the little side streets as well.

We were like kids in a candy store, searching “Movie Time Video” (1404 Oak Tree Road) and Raaga (1655 Oak Tree Rd) for Bollywood DVDs and Cds to add to our ever-growing collection back home. The mellifuous tones, interchanged at times with Bhangra, cultural and filmi music filled the street and added to the adventure we had embarked upon.

Filmfare and Cine-Blitz magazines caught our attention too, as the cinematic heroes and heroines that we’ve come to know, graced their covers at Mansoor Bookshop (1386 Oak Tree Road) and Indo-US Books & Journals (same building as Movie Time Video).

The sight of all the many colorful and exquisite saris and salwar kameez were breathtaking, as we tried on many, while imaging ourselves dancing around the trees in the rain with our favorite Bollywood actors. In fact, one of the shops we visited is even called “Bollywood Fashions” (on 1384a Oak Tree Road).