MIT Scholar Vivek Bald uncovers forgotten history of South Asian immigrants' New York City arrival 

This is a fascinating story of an immigrant community that grew and prospered, a group we don't even think about.     - - Donna Poisl

BY ERICA PEARSON / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Virtually all Asian immigration to the U.S. was banned when Aladdin Ullah’s father — who left East Bengal to work on a British steamer — jumped ship in the 1920s and settled in New York.

Like hundreds of other Muslim sailors at the time, he found a home in Harlem — marrying a Puerto Rican woman and opening one of the city’s first Indian restaurants. He stayed there until his death in 1983.

“I see, now that I’m older, he kind of romanticized what Harlem was to him,” said Ullah, 44, a comedian and playwright who grew up in the George Washington Carver Houses.

“I think my father looked at Harlem as where, ‘Here is where people greet you, These people embraced me for what I am.’
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