‘Little India’ home away from home
Immigrant residents at apartment complex in Menands come together to live, laugh, celebrate
When the clock strikes 5 p.m., an apartment complex tucked away in this small Colonie village comes alive.
Children flood the tennis courts situated off the quiet street of Wards Lane, riding their bikes, playing basketball or playing tennis with the adult “pros” on the courts. They jump up and down, cheering, when a fire truck honks for them as it drives by. Families take to the suburban streets, going on group walks together, some women dressed in traditional Indian saris. In the span of a few blocks, people of all backgrounds, from all over the world, coalesce.
Here, at the Park Hill and Park Lane apartments in Menands, is a burgeoning immigrant community that has rapidly grown over the years. Their migration stories, how they ended up in Menands, in this specific apartment complex, more often than not mirror that of immigrants across the country: They knew someone who lived there, and followed them for community. And in so doing, the sometimes challenging aspects of the immigration experience — isolation, loneliness, homesickness — have been muted.
“Because of this community, we don’t miss India at all,” Utpal Patel said as he was sitting on a bench outside the courts on a recent day, watching his friends play tennis. “Otherwise we become homesick. If no one is to go out and no one is to mingle, it is hard. Every evening, we all play together, tennis or volleyball or something.”
The experience at the Park Hill apartments can starkly contrast that of im
migrating to other places in the country.
Ashok Adikoppula, for example, lived in a few other cities in the U.S. before ending up in Menands. In other cities, he had little human interaction, and experienced difficulty connecting with people and making friends. But within minutes of arriving at his new Park Hill apartment with his wife seven years ago, another family who lived in the building knocked on their door, introduced themselves and asked if
there was anything the newcomers needed.
“That was just such a big change, especially when you’re coming from places where nobody talks to anybody,” said Adikoppula, an IT consultant for the state who now has a house in Loudonville.
Of the nine apartments in his building, seven were occupied by Indian families — though Park Hill houses an extensive immigrant community from other countries as well.
It was just like back home: Kids would come home from school and just knock on neighbors’ doors to play, no permission needed; dishes from back
home would be spontaneously shared throughout the building; every weekend, the families would gather for a big potluck dinner. There were multiple units in each building, but the residents came together to form a makeshift extended family.
Holidays such as Diwali are when the apartment complex particularly feels like “Little India,” Adikoppula said. People come out of their homes wearing traditional clothing, the scents of home cooking filling the air as children play together and adults celebrate.
“This becomes almost like a little village back home,” Adikoppula said.
According to the latest census data, 22 percent of
the Menands population speaks a language other than English at home, and nearly 19 percent were born outside the U.S.
Many of the residents who live at the Park Hill apartments are state workers, like Adikoppula. That’s part of what draws them to Menands: It’s a safe, small suburban neighborhood that is also a central location, close to bus lines, the downtown state offices, shopping and the Hindu Temple Society on Albany Shaker Road. And while there are other apartment complexes in Menands, Park Hill draws more of the community in because of its prices, amenities and spacious apartments with more than one bathroom, residents said.
Menands School District, situated just one block down from the Park Hill apartments, is another major draw for newcomers.
“They promote diversity, equity and inclusivity, and (a large part) of the school population is Indian,” said Elangovan Raman, a Menands resident and school board member. “The school has cultural fairs, they’ll have a Diwali program for the Indian Diwali festival. They do a lot.”
It is one of the most diverse school districts in the Capital Region, which is unique considering its small size — the district serves 300 students in
grades K-8, all in one building. Data shared by the Menands School District shows its students are 29 percent Asian, nearly 36 percent Black and 7 percent Hispanic/ Latino. Superintendent Maureen Long added that 22 different languages are spoken among students, and of 300 students, 60 are classified as English language learners.
“A lot of other smaller districts that are the size of ours don’t exist in the location that ours do,” Long said, noting that Menands may attract more diverse families than smaller, rural schools. “Even our population has changed significantly in my nine years here. I don’t know if (other districts in the area) are seeing increases to that extent.”
As a result of their growing diverse student population, Long said the district has been creative in finding resources to support specific learning needs (such as learning English), as well as making sure the school’s culture is more welcoming and inclusive, outside of their semiannual culture fairs.
“We’re definitely looking at doing a full assessment of our curriculum and materials to make sure that our students see themselves reflected in the materials they are using in the classroom,”
Long said. “And we hope to put more focus on creating more diversity in our staffing to better reflect our student population.”
For 14-year-old Sanvi Jaju, who was in the fourth grade when she and her parents immigrated to the U.S. from India, living in such a diverse community helped tremendously with adjusting to the new country.
“A lot of my friends that I originally met were also Indian, and they are still today some of the best friends that I have,” she said. “It was really easy to connect with them, just because we share a lot in common and they would understand what I’m trying to say.”
Together, Sanvi and her friends would go to temple, choreograph and attend Indian dances and celebrate their holidays. While she knew she had a different background from some other students, she never felt ostracized or alone in it.
Diwali, the Hindu festival of light, is Sanvi’s favorite holiday.
Families dressed in traditional garb gather with their home cooked meals, each carrying a dish unique to the provinces they’re from in India. Sanvi goes in the backyard with her friends. They laugh and dance, then light up sparklers — celebrating together.