Varun "Tappu" Kothari (Yash Pandit) is the eldest son of the Kotharis and he works in the family-run sari store.

Chungking Mansions features guesthouses, curry restaurants, African bistros, clothing shops, sari stores, and foreign exchange offices.

In the last 15 years we have become overwhelmed with jewelry stores and sari stores.

Jewish bakeries were turned into curry houses, jewellery shops became sari stores, and synagogues became dress factories.

Tangail Saree Kutir along with other sari stores on Baily Road, strive to support the thousands of weavers of Bangladesh who have struggled to keep this age old tradition and fashion alive.

Even people familiar with New York's collage of major ethnic neighborhoods - those who know the sari stores in Jackson Heights, the taquerias in the South Bronx and and the Jamaican bakeries in Flatbush - might be surprised by some of the detailed findings revealed by the census.

Yesterday morning, as dozens of merchants on 74th Street in Jackson Heights opened their sari stores, Indian groceries and restaurants, people praised Mr. Gandhi as the leader who would have been best able to hold India together as it struggles to control communal passions.

Flung out along the block are sari stores, Indian grocery stores, jewelry shops and appliance and electronic outlets.

The surrounding streets - crammed with tailors, sari stores and jewellery shops - may not be as pleasing to the eye but are still intriguing and worth exploring.

There are hundreds of sari stores, an old-fashioned printing press, air-conditioner repair and astrology.