About this series: This is Part 1 of our four-part “A Taste of Home” series. South Asian writer Anila Yoganathan and photographer Dean Hesse shine a new light on some of Decatur’s popular South Asian businesses. The Decatur area holds history of being a space for these businesses. As new development comes to the area and more people are discovering these businesses, Anila wanted to showcase the important role these businesses play for South Asians in Georgia but also throughout the South.
By Anila Yoganathan, contributor
Decatur, GA — It’s Sunday night during the week of Diwali and the plazas on Dekalb Industrial Way and Church Street are packed with people.
Colorful string and LED lights as well as bright white floodlights adorn the buildings and windows of businesses as families bustle in and out of the South Asian stores and restaurants.
This is Decatur, a small piece of the South Asian subcontinent dropped in the middle of metro Atlanta, with some businesses serving South Asian communities across the U.S. South since at least the 1980s.
When Jay Varma first moved to Georgia in 1995 for college, there were very few Indians in the state. Atlanta was not known as an Indian hub, like Chicago, New Jersey or Houston. The concept of an Indian neighborhood in metro Atlanta was but a dream at that point in time.
“It was definitely a culture shock,” Varma said. “When you first come here, obviously you miss home, and you miss your friends and your parents and your food.”
Sangita Shaikha shops Cherians International Groceries on DeKalb Industrial Way in greater Decatur. Photo by Dean Hesse.
At the time there wasn’t the same access to resources such as spices, vegetables, food and restaurants for South Asians as there is in Georgia today.
There were a couple of grocery stores including Cherians International Groceries and Patel Brothers, a Chicago based South Asian grocery store company, that had popped up in the metro Atlanta area back in…
Read the full article here
