Episode #212: Dancing Between Worlds with Roy Rimli

Written By Nathalie Kalbach

About This Episode

I kick off Season 2 with Rimli Roy, founder and artistic director of Surati Studio, whose journey from IT programmer to cultural institution builder embodies the best of Jersey City's immigrant experience. From her first Halloween in America to creating festivals that unite thousands, Rimli shares how cultural work happens organically,through one person's willingness to share what they love, combined with a community ready to support that sharing.

Meet Rimli Roy

Rimli Roy is the founder and artistic director of Surati Studios, Jersey City's umbrella organization for Indian performing arts. Born into a musical family, she arrived in the US in 1999 as a newlywed IT programmer. After 9/11 changed her career path, she formally founded Surati in 2002, building it into a cultural institution that serves thousands through festivals, performances, and education while staying deeply rooted in Jersey City's India Square community.

Connect with Rimli Roy:

Key Insights

  • Cultural collision and adaptation: Rimli's first impression of America was that it was "too quiet" compared to Mumbai's bustling energy, until she discovered Halloween and fell in love with the annual celebration

  • Organic institution building: Surati Studios grew naturally from Rimli's personal need to share her culture and connect with community, not from grand institutional plans

  • The invisible networks of support: From Hanish at China Spice saying "make it dirty, just use the space" for the first Holi celebration, to George at the Chinese restaurant letting her park in his lot—cultural work depends on countless small acts of generosity

  • Halloween meets Diwali: Rimli's innovative "Diwali-ween" festivals combined two celebrations that happen around the same time, despite some community pushback about mixing sacred and secular traditions

  • 9/11 as a turning point: Working on Wall Street before 9/11, the traumatic event shifted her path from IT to full-time arts work and community building

  • Community as family: India Square operates as an extended family where business owners support each other regardless of background: Chinese, Indian, and other businesses all help one another succeed

  • Cultural bridge-building: The Holi festival has grown from a small gathering to attract thousands of people annually, with many non-Indian Jersey City residents now participating

  • Food as cultural storytelling: Each restaurant in India Square brings unique regional traditions, and Rimli envisions cultural food tours that teach the history and diversity within Indian cuisine

Visual Documentation

with Rimli just recently at my artshow

Rimli performing for Covid Relief Event - photo by Dr. Jo Ann Neal Photography curtesy of Surati Studio

Surati Studios on Newark Ave

Holi Festival 2023 - courtesy of Surati Studios

Surati Studios - Community Gatherings and Events

Related Resources

Explore Further

Coming soon on Substack - Nat's follow-up article exploring the Holi festival tradition and its significance in building cross-cultural community connections. Subscribe to Nat's Sidewalk Stories so you don't miss the deeper dive into how cultural celebrations become community bridges.

Coming Up Next

Season 2 continues with conversations about creativity, community building, and the people who make Jersey City a place where cultures connect and thrive. My next guest is Andrea McKenna, a wonderful Hudson County Artist who has been connected with Jersey City for many years!

Connect with Nat

Music: Our theme music is "How You Amaze Me," composed by Jim Kalbach and performed by Jim Kalbach, Bryan Beninghove, Charlie Siegler, and Pat Van Dyke.

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Full Transcript

Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the conversation's content and meaning.

 

Nat Kalbach: Welcome to Nat's Sidewalk Stories, the podcast that explores our community, creativity and place come together through the voices of remarkable change makers. I'm your host, Nat Kalbach I am super excited to have you back. This is season two and I'm gonna kick it off with someone who really embodies everything this podcast celebrates Rimli Roy, who's the founder and artistic director of Surati Studio.

For over two decades, Rimli has been weaving the rich traditions of Indian performing arts into the fabric of our city, Jersey City. Festivals that unite thousands of people a studio that serves as an umbrella for Indian performing Arts. And partnerships that stretch from the UN to the Lincoln Center while staying really deeply rooted right here in Jersey City. Her story begins with a very different plan.

She arrived in 1999 as a newly wed IT programmer, and she, unlike me, thought that America was too quiet and she worked on Wall Street just before September 11th, changed everything. We are talking about her path from coding to cheography, from Mumbai to India Square about moments filled with discovery, cultural collision, and the kind of serendipity that shapes both individual lives and entire communities. So please settle in for a conversation about Halloween, the business owners who become culture champions and how sometimes the most important work we do grows organically from what we need most ourselves.

Hi, I am super excited for my next guest on the pod and that is Rimli Roy. She is amazing. We have met a couple times. I'm super happy to have you Rimli. How are you?

Rimli Roy: I'm doing good. I'm so excited to be on this podcast with you, Nat. I've heard so much about this and I've been like following your work since we connected. I know a lot of people, some of them I know who've been on this uh, podcast before and I am so excited to be here today.

Thank you so much for inviting me and for having me.

Nat Kalbach: Thank you so much for being here because Rimli you're an energy bundle and you do so much. I don't even know how you do it. So would you for those people who

do not know you. Introduce yourself and what you actually do with, Surati Studio.

Rimli Roy: I was, born into a musical family. Growing up I was always into the music, you know, into doing music, dance, learning all of those. And then, developing that into something like Surati was something that probably was very organic for me when I moved here to this country.

I'm the founder and artistic director. I founded Surati formally in 2002 but I, um. Was performing, dancing and teaching and touring right when I moved to this country, uh, in end of 99. And I think I was performing by the middle of 2000. I think a lot of people know us as a performing arts organization. We do dance, music, theater. We also incorporate, you know, visual arts, poetry, anything to do with arts and, uh, literature I say literature because we are also into interpreting like a lot of Indian literary works, which we, try to present in the form of performing arts.

And we are also presenting festivals, Indian festivals that is holidays, uh, in the community here. And we, have toured, outside of Jersey City, outside of the United States with our productions and our shows. So I'm the artistic director curating a lot of these productions and these shows and these festivals.

But I would say we would call ourselves like an umbrella organization for anything to do with Indian performing arts and culture and experiences.

Nat Kalbach: Yeah, and you just, had a Holi festival, which you organized. How many people roundabout come to that festival?

Rimli Roy: We've had like, uh, different kinds of attendance over the years. When we started Holi in 2008 in Jersey City, it was indoors which would incorporate performances and cultural education as well as, uh, sharing of, food and drinks and all of that.

We did that in, India Square, actually, where, at a restaurant called China Spice. A friend of mine, Hanish, who used to own China Spice at that time, he had this, party hall upstairs, above the restaurant. At that time, the place was unfinished. And he said, you can make it dirty.

Make it, you know, you can put colors there. We don't care. Just use the space. He was very gracious and he gave us the space. I remember at that year, we probably were sold out, like we had to turn people away when they found out about the Holi festival. We had like maybe 200 people in there. I understood then actually when I started Holi, the inspiration behind it was to share the culture with, with communities here. And of course my daughter was growing up at that time and I had this big urge to share what Holi is with her. And in 2008, probably she was like five years old or something.

And then after that we moved to Hamilton Park we partnered with Art House Productions and we also had Silverman sponsoring us. And we are very, uh, grateful to those two organizations who are having supported us because, then we we had an entire like, museum of culture at the Hamilton Park Montessori School, which was another amazing partner for us at that time. And this was sometime in 2010 when we started doing Holi again in Hamilton Park I think we had like five, 600 people that started and every year we were kind of sold out almost because it was in an enclosed area in Hamilton Park, and then we moved Holi to exchange Place in 2014.

And I think that year we had about three, 4,000 people. And since then it has grown to have like over 10 to 15,000 people over the course of the day.

But after the pandemic, it was a partnership between Hoboken and Jersey City. And, you know, I mean, after the pandemic, of course I would say we haven't had those kind of numbers, but we've still have several thousand people attending over the years.

So it's still been a great, great, amazing turnout.

Nat Kalbach: Can you take us back to 1999? What was it like when you were arriving in Jersey City as a newlywed ?

And, you told me that there is a Halloween story that you can tell us too.

Rimli Roy: Yeah, absolutely. So first, Nat, I would say, right, right after I graduated, I moved to Mumbai

I was an IT programmer when I first moved to the United States working here.

And, and I was doing projects in Wall Street and, this was right before the nine 11, incident happened. But, uh, I would say that I was in Mumbai, I was working in the IT industry, uh, you know, as a daytime job. And in the evening I was working with z telephones, uh, you know, recruiting dancers for a television show.

Uh, and that was my evening and weekend job in, Mumbai. I kind of had two jobs at that time and I really enjoyed both of them because I have that whole, science and math side to me as well as the artistic side.

And I know I shared that with you. It's hilarious. But I moved from Mumbai to, uh, my flight was to JFK. And the first thing I have to say, my first impression, uh, as I was driving to, uh, so we moved to Jersey City, right? Then we moved to Newport in Jersey City.

It was through my husband's job at that time, so through Citibank. And, I remember the first impression when we were driving from JFK to Jersey City.

I found it so quiet. No honking, no sounds, no one telling, you know, move away from the streets or, you know, making a lot of noise, no mayhem, no craziness. And I'm like, why are people so crazy about the United States? This is too quiet for me. I'm like, that is the first idea I had.

I was like this, how am I gonna even survive here? Because, no one talks people like, just follow rules and, everything is so, disciplined and nothing like, I mean, Mumbai of course, was definitely more disciplined than Culcatta, even in those days. But people walk on the streets, you know, in India, people actually show your hand and stop the traffic and cross.

Otherwise, there's no one's gonna stop for you on the streets. So that was the first day. And then I remember I, I came to the new house that the company had given my husband. And in the evening, obviously we were hungry, and we went to the Newport Mall locally here, and the day was Halloween.

And I did not realize it, that that day was Halloween. I didn't, had no idea of what Halloween was. Ironically today, Halloween is one of my most favorite festivals. I would, I celebrated, like if I ever have a Diwali show on Halloween, I revolt. I'm like, can we move the date? Can we not do it on Halloween?

But I went to the mall and I saw everybody strangely dressed, and I was like, what is going on in this country? I don't know what's going on.

Like everybody's dressed up in this weird like a ghost or like, whatever. I had no idea what this festival was about. And I'm like, am I hallucinating? Is this a dream? Am I, like, have I, am I jet lagged or what, what is going on? So next year I was celebrating Halloween.

Nat Kalbach: That's amazing. I can partly re relate. I cannot relate to you coming here and thinking this is quiet and organized because I'm coming from Germany and I had like the total opposite experience. I'm coming from a like second biggest city in Germany. And um, and I was like, my goodness, it's so loud.

I remember the first night in the apartment and ambulances and honking and I was like, my God. And then I was laughing that people would just cross the street and they don't stand there. Even if no car's coming when it's red, you know. Know, like why? Well, you've gotta wait. So it's so funny that we are coming from different cultures to this, area in the us and we have a total different experience, of course because of where we are from.

But also funny, I have kind of the same experience, not like you on the first day were following because that, it just started a couple years ago that people in Germany would celebrate it. But, I still do things wrong where I'm giving way too much candy out, or let the kids just take the candy themselves.

And my husband's like, we're never gonna have enough you can't do this. I find it also like very joyful, just with the kids and everyone dressing up and it's so much fun.

Rimli Roy: I fell right into the entire Halloween group. I love that. I love that festival. I mean, it's so much fun. We, I'm always planning something with friends and when I had it, my daughter was growing up, I took all the liberties to kind of dress her up in different ways and make sure there was candy at our house or we were taking her trick treating, and, and now I know India celebrates Halloween and everyone knows what that is.

At that time, no one knew, and it was like a, a revelation for me. And I remember, I've even done festivals because Diwali and Halloween are so close to each other actually. Organized festivals that are called Diwali, combining Diwali and Halloween. And interestingly, some people from the Indian community weren't very happy with me with that because, they said that Diwali is supposed to be like a sacred something and Halloween is something to do with the devil.

So they were like, you should not mix these two. And you know how I am, I'm kind of always thinking outside the box and trying to do something, which is different. I continued with that festival for a while

Nat Kalbach: that is so amazing. So you did say that, you came, before nine 11 and you mentioned to me when we were, meeting, that, nine 11 changed your path from IT to founding Surati studio full-time. Do you wanna tell a little bit about that?

Rimli Roy: The incident of nine 11, of course, was a very traumatic time in our lives. I had a job at, uh, you know, in Wall Street and my husband and I, you know, incidentally, we were working on two ends of Wall Street at that time. Uh, I was closer to the, um, the stock exchange and he was at the other end. And I remember that, uh, the day before on the 10th of September, I was at. World Trade Center all day that, that area, I was roaming around in that area and all of that.

And, so the next day I was in Newport the area overlooks the water and we can see the World Trade Center from there. So at that time I organized a tour. My family is also, you know, family of performing artists. And when I came here, I organized a tour with, my dad, my brother, my two B sister-in-law at that time, who's a amazing Bollywood playback singer, and my dad and brother, they're both composers and performers. After the World Trade Center disaster, we were like very shaken. And you know, obviously there were no projects at that time. And though I was still, performing, uh, I was not teaching dances per se. But then that's when I actually started giving private lessons at my home in, in Jersey City. There was a lot of demand for it. I didn't realize that there was such a demand for it, though. I never thought I would ever be doing arts as a profession because I thought it was too close to my heart to put like a price tag on it .

It took me some time to learn, along the way. And when World Trade Center happened, it was, um. You know, I, I remember uh, I went to volunteer with the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

I used to advocate for, businesses that had lost their livelihood, like individuals that had lost their livelihood, who had had businesses around the World Trade Center area. So I spent a lot of time in those weeks going there, and it was one of the most fruitful and fulfilling things that I've ever done, I think, in my, in my life at that time.

And then I realized that, I kind of started, uh, working, you know, more with more time in the arts, you know, building more shows or choreographing and teaching. And then I just realized that I was so busy with that.

I probably didn't have the time to go back to IT. There was no way I could be like continuing that schedule of working in the daytime, then rehearsing in the evening, because sometimes my rehearsals would be from like eight o'clock to like midnight. And then on the weekends I was touring and performing.

So having a full-time job and doing that was really difficult. I realized that doing the arts is more than a full-time job.

Nat Kalbach: So. I love that. Um, especially since I'm also coming from a full-time job as a paralegal and then, turning into teaching art and then becoming a full-time artist. It's an interesting journey, but it's when your passion takes over and you're realizing how you can make your passion actually your, your job .

So that's really amazing. So you have not lived there, but you have been around India Square, or you know it for about 25 years or longer, right. What was Little India like when you first arrived versus now? Do you see a lot of differences just over the years?

Rimli Roy: Of course I feel that of, construction wise, there's been a lot of differences. But I made some good friends at that time at India Square, while I was, because I was teaching there at one of the temples. We used to have like classes there. I made some amazing friends there, connected with so many of the businesses out there. And today they know me by name or by face, but it's taken me some time to get there because they didn't know who I was and you know what I was up to, but I remember at that time there was Patel Video, which is still there. The owners of Curry On and Patel video. Those guys have been extremely helpful to me from the very start, like they used to take my business cards. I mean, how many people would go up to their way to do this?

Like they used Keep my business cards. If anybody asked about any music or dance classes or anything, they would give my business card out. And to this day they do the same. They've been really amazing that, there are people in the community and there's, you know, they've been amongst many others of course, who've sponsored and helped us out with Holi and Diwali and so many other festivals.

I remember years ago it was in, uh, maybe 2006 or something, we were performing at the Rutgers University the owner of Curry On had sponsored food for our event and, you know, they had asked me that, can you recommend any businesses? And I just came to know them and I said that Talk to Bhavesh.

And very sweetly, he had sponsored food for the university for that event. So, you know, these are unsung heroes from our community, who do so much and partner with us, and, they never asked for anything in return. It was always lovely to have such people who have been like really, really amazing for the community.

And I, and I know that there are also people from across the, across the river, like Saar restaurant, who's also a Michelin star chef, Hemant Mathur, who's also been our, sponsor for many events. He's also been one of those people, I'm calling out these names because they should be acknowledged along our journey and who've been supportive and I've had dancers who actually worked with Hemant Mathur in New York, and he was one of those people when we ever had rehearsals, when we ever had shows, he would always say, just go, we will manage. He, he was never one of those bosses who said that, no, you can't go, or you can't have your shift covered by another person, because they were professional dancers who, who are doing a, a job at the restaurant to just make a living and to kind of balance the arts as, as do so many artists. So, you know, coming to that, I mean, India Square in that way. Yes, there have been a lot of new businesses, a lot of, uh, new constructions that have happened. In fact, the temple where I used to teach that has been, uh, demolished in a new building has come up there. There's another temple that has been, you know, made there.

And interestingly, life goes back a circle, uh, this holy, our posters were put up back, you know, back up at that temple this year, you know, to, to just promote the festival and let people know.

Nat Kalbach: That's so wonderful. So it's a really, even though there are things always in fluctuation and things are changing, there's a real sense of community helping each other, helping newcomers, and everyone who's there. That's amazing.

Rimli Roy: Absolutely. I, and I have to say, like even currently where I am, my studio. There is a new business right next to us, which is called Sezechaun Miri, know, amazing Chinese, Indian, Chinese food. An amazing owner, one of the nicest people I know on that street who've been extremely supportive. George, letting me park my cart in his parking lot to any help I've ever needed people to work with us, for an event or a festival if we need volunteers or, you know, interns or anything.

He's always there. He is always there and they make, um, apart from the fact that their food is delicious. .

You know, there's always been amazing people. We come across like restaurant owners or people who have businesses. They've been here for such a long time, but a big shout out to George also because being right next to us and, anything he can do because he realizes we run a nonprofit.

He always is there to help

Nat Kalbach: it's like a spirit. It's not even like just Indian businesses and people. It's like, almost like if you are in that area of India Square, you belong to the family of India Square, and then you're celebrating this sense of community and helping each other and being there for each other.

Rimli Roy: Absolutely. As I was mentioning it to you the other day, I was thinking of doing this food tour, a cultural tour. We even talking to Hudson County Cultural Affairs to see if, they wanted me to curate something. I wanna do a little performance at the studio, followed by a food tour because there are so many amazing restaurants out there.

There's Pani puri, they're these little mini puri, like a little, I don't know, puffed, uh , it's crunchy and puffed, like a bowl, like a mini, mini bowl, like a crunchy bowl. And in that you put like potatoes and, and lots of different, uh, spices and,

Nat Kalbach: making me

Rimli Roy: could be, yeah.

And it's amazing. They have Live Pani pui at several locations in Journal Square, and I wanna pick these locations. Each of these restaurants are bringing in something unique. And there are also other places that are selling things that are native to India, like, you know, utensils and, articles and flowers and, you know, so many different things these different items that people are bringing, which are very native to India, believe me. Even a pressure cooker. Even a pressure cooker. There's a typical type of Indian pressure cooker that you have, uh, you know, things that you make your Idlis in, things that can be religious, things that can be traditional or cultural. Those are being sold in India Square.

Nat Kalbach: I wanna do this. I'm in like you, like I don't care if you invite me. If there's tickets, I will be there.

Rimli Roy: Oh, that's amazing. No, because we wanna talk about it. Then there's also a cultural history to each of these food items, because each state in India is so different in terms of food and language and attire and you know, there's right from the mountains to the deserts, there's so much that India has to offer

Nat Kalbach: It's so funny because people, I think a lot changed and of course we are also in a city where people might be more used to it, but there's this let's go eat Indian food, or you know, Chinese food or, and these are big countries and there's lots of differences.

So I would love to learn more about it. So you have your studio and you have the performances, but like how do you help bridge the Indian diaspora with, um, Jersey City, residents who might only know or they think they know the food or maybe they know some of the differences, but how do you help bridge that?

I think like the Holi festival is definitely something where a lot of non-Indian people now in Jersey City and Hoboken, uh, also join, like, but how do you see yourself like bridging that?

Rimli Roy: We've actually had people from all different, uh, you know, backgrounds come and perform, whether they're from Indian background or not.

We've had had belly dancers, we've had, you know, south American performers, we've had like, you know, jazz and we've had so many different, types of performances at Holi, just to show that we are very inclusive in everything that we do. And you know, the idea is to make partners.

I don't know whether a gap even exists, but it's something that we think it's in our minds that, you know, we think that, okay, we don't know enough about Indian culture, or would somebody be offended if we said this or did that? And, and these are conversations that we should have.

And for that we actually, one of the things that we do at Holi is we do a storytelling version of the background of the story of Holi. So people understand where it comes from, you know, right from the story of Radha Krishna to the story of ...... there's like a lot of different stories that are folk tales and so people can understand or relate to where that festival comes from.

And, you know, we have this production called Kha Festivals of India. And in that we actually cover the different festivals that are there, uh, or the holidays that are celebrated in India. And not necessarily are these only Hindu festivals because India is, you know. Intrinsically a secular state. So we celebrate Christmas and Eid and you know, Budha Genti and, you know, uh, guru Putura, uh, the Sikh festivals as much as any other festival.

It's just that some of the Hindu festivals, they are, like from the state of Bengal where I grew up in Calcutta with the Durga, Puja is like this. There's the worship of the, of the goddess, Durga. People splurge to create these artistic pandals or these houses.

These are amazing artists that are actually building these structures for weeks before this festival and o for five days. They're at, they're on display, and the best Pandal gets an award. I mean, only in Calcutta. If you ever visit during Durga Puja, you'd realize that this is something that is so unique to the state of Bengal.

The artistry of these structures in culcatta, it's like a museum piece if you actually see it. The intricacy of this work is just amazing.

And I've been thinking of how I can bring one of those, uh, structures of those people to build something like that here, because I'm so about always sharing with the, um. You know, communities here. So yeah, how we can bring those, those interesting elements of India or the cultural aspect of India, how we can educate the masses or tell people about what this is about because there's so much more and I think I want to share that from my community, from the way I've been brought up. Coming from a family, which I would say was not very traditional in India, and I'm very grateful for that because my parents were very open-minded I think that inclusivity and diversity was something that was, uh, very relevant to my home and my family in India. My dad was, he's a celebrity back in India and, and he would be invited to all of these events and they would be invited to my home for dinner or a meal and there would be more music and more, parties or whatever happening in my house.

Sharing of food and culture and, an exchange of ideas. And we realized that that is when people would come into our, uh, into our living room and share a space where we could talk and share music and dance. And I think that was a very divine and sacred experience in my life.

Nat Kalbach: Yeah, definitely. Sharing, sharing these experiences of eating together, dancing together, listening to music or words or something visual, that, that really makes people come together and appreciate other people more.

It's also so inspiring, just like how you talk about that. There's so many things we could talk about, but you have your performances that you have taken from the UN to the Lincoln Center.

You were all over, but you have rooted your studio here in Jersey City. And it might be just because you live here, like your family is here, and so that's why you have it here. But what does it mean for you to build a cultural institution in this specific place here in Jersey City? Like, I mean, you could have gone to n New York too.

I mean it's, you know, lots of people work in New York. Maybe it was just more convenient and that's fine and then we move on. But maybe there's something else that, that made you decide on this, being here.

Rimli Roy: When I moved, I. Loved the, you know, the entire, uh, community here. The diversity, the, uh, inclusivity and everything, like in Jersey City, I automatically got involved with the arts, working with Jersey City Cultural Affairs or with, Hudson County Cultural Affairs, uh, you know, all of that.

I mean, if we have to have another, entity in any other place, any other city. I love New York and I think that I have a lot of regard for the amount of, uh. Uh, regard New York has for the arts also, I, I cannot deny that there's a huge amount of, positivity and awareness for arts in, in New York, but I think Jersey City over the years has been amazing at, building that awareness and sense of culture and the community around the arts.

And, given the chance that they have New York right next to it, the challenges are, multiplied. And it's not that we don't have our artists or our people coming in from New York into our studio space in Jersey City, which is amazing, we have people coming in from New York for our Holi festival or for our Diwali Festival.

And I think that is an amazing, thing to have. But, I love the fact that, I can call Jersey City home . Right now with the studio space that we have in Newark Avenue, and, you know, the, vibe of that place and being close to India Square and people just coming off, like people walking by our studio and just coming in it's very accessible in every way. And, we hope to grow and, uh, you know, have other locations within maybe Jersey City or, you know, within New Jersey or, Hudson County and all of that. But, the beauty of, um, having Jersey City as home is immense. Growing with this community, I've been on the Jersey City Arts Council, like advisory committee. I've been a part of the Hudson County Advisory Committee when they were coming up with an Arts Master plan, for example.

I've been a part of those, uh, things in the community and I think that. That's very valuable as an, as an example, uh, over here. And, uh, even though we do a lot of work in, in the tri-state area overall and outside we tour and all of that, but coming back home to Jersey City and, mentioning that we are, Jersey City based company brings us a lot of pride.

Nat Kalbach: Yeah, I bet that's so beautiful. I thought, I'm gonna ask you if you could have a conversation with the very first, I don't know who that is by the way.

It would be amazing if we, if we would, but the very first Indian family who settled, uh, in what became Little India. What would you want to ask them, um, about their experience of making Jersey City their home?

Rimli Roy: , I know this was a question that I was thinking about since you shared that with me. I was like, thinking about how, making Jersey City their home or what made them, uh, decide on Jersey City as a home. Because when I first moved to Jersey City, uh, in Newport, there was like a couple of buildings and there was open field.

Nat Kalbach: Hmm.

Rimli Roy: There was nothing around over there. So I was wondering what India Square would've been like if the first family came there. And I don't even know if there are many, many families who settled on that street. I know there are some homes there and there are like, you know, people who live, who've lived there, who are mostly the business owners.

Like, they probably bought those houses and there have their businesses below and they're living upstairs. I don't know, but I wonder, uh, what it would've been like with their interaction with, like if supposing somebody was wearing a sari, know, and the first person in, in the United States to have seen that outfit.

What would their questions have been or what, how did they react to that? Or were they nervous? Were they ready to share? Were they, confident of where they came from? Uh, because I know of a lot of Indian families, a lot of Indian people, because their names are difficult to pronounce from the west, you know, for a loss of a lot of westerners.

Some people change their names to make it more, uh, western friendly. So I don't know whether people considered that. How would they have envisioned raising their child

Nat Kalbach: Mm.

Rimli Roy: Or if they had kids here, how would they bridge that? The differences in culture? And that's another thing that. You know, comes to mind because this is one of the discussions I really feel very strongly about having at the studio, is that when immigrant families move here into the United States, they come from a different culture, a different background, a different upbringing, a different environment.

When they move into the United States, they should be something relevant to all the families and cultures who are coming from different places. Just the way I shared my Halloween story, and, you talked about a different, experience here. How did they think about, uh, having a conversation around what is the norm or what is the right thing to do, or like a, I mean, I would think that this would be a very personal thing because some people, depending on what their background is, they may ask a question or they may hesitate to ask a

Nat Kalbach: Yeah.

Rimli Roy: or some people may be nervous, some people may be shy, you know, so it's interesting to find out what did they think .

Was that confidence built over the years? Was it that they came in with that confidence to ask that question or to make new friends? There's so many questions that you would have for, for someone like that, you know, what are the opportunities here? But if they went to school here, I think a lot of, a lot of things I taught, because I never went to school here.

I moved here and I was working straight away. I think when you work, when you go to school here, a lot of things you learn from your colleagues or your friends that you make in college or. You know, in school, uh, when you're studying here, there's a lot of things that comes through with that, you know, along with a lot of people whose accents may be influenced studying here and speaking constantly or hearing the American accent, how it changes a lot of things with your belonging and, a lot of people, how they adjust or what they think.

Uh, it's very interesting. I wish we could actually meet some of those people and find out we don't have recorded histories of, you know, oral histories that are not recorded or have not been mentioned.

Because as per what I found out, as I said, we were probably the first, uh, we probably hosted the first Indian festival in Exchange Place because the Irish festival was already happening there, but there was no other Indian festival happening in Exchange Place. And after we started it, there's so many organizations now doing Indian festivals in Jersey City.

We could talk to some of those first, um, families who probably moved here or they came to study here. You know, probably they came to study here and then they had their family here.

There were some of them, you know, people from India, they study, but they're probably back married already back in India. And they, they kind of take time to bring their husbands or their wives over later once they're a little more settled.

And it's, it's, it's hard. Some people leave their children behind to come and start a life here, and then they bring their kids over. And I wonder if those families were one of those. I don't know whether they would think it's for the better or for the worse because there are so many, uh, I'm sure there are plus factors here and there are plus factors back in India it's kind of a difficult decision to make because we always think about, America as the, land of opportunities and, you know, better life and all of that.

But, I know a lot of people who've moved here and then they moved back to India. So, you know, there are always, two sides of the story

Nat Kalbach: You have your, like you come from a culture where. There are many beautiful things, right, like that you're leaving behind. And so how do you share that if you're don't have a community like you have right now? Like how do you share that if you're the first one to come or there are only like maybe two or three families, and then you have to be, are you just like friends with them just because that's what you have in common, that you are from India, but you might not even be the same religion or region or the same festivals or things that you're celebrating?

It seems so, so hard thank you for sharing that. Rimli.

Rimli Roy: Absolutely. Of course. Of course.

Nat Kalbach: Thank you so much Rimli for this conversation. This was so wonderful. You are a firecracker we only scratched the iceberg surface. But I hope that people come to some of the festivals, check you out, follow you, and see all the amazing things that you do.

And I cannot wait for this amazing food and shopping tour that you'll put together.

Rimli Roy: absolutely. I'm looking forward to that. Nat, .

Nat Kalbach: What strikes me most about Rimli's story is how cultural institutions actually get built, because that's what Surati studio is. It's a cultural institution in our city, and it wasn't built by making grand plans or through formal initiatives, but through one person's willingness to share what they love, combined with a community ready to support that sharing. From Hanish at china spice by saying, you can make it dirty. Just use the space for that first Holi celebration to george at the Chinese restaurant next to her current studio, letting her park her car in his lot. To the owners of Patel Video, keeping her business cards at their counter for decades. These are the invisible networks that make cultural work possible.

Her story really reminds us that sometimes the most powerful community builders are the ones who never set out to be community builders at all. They just start from their own need. In her case, wanting her daughter to understand Holi and stay open to how that personal need connects with what her neighbors are hungering for too.

If you're inspired by Rimli's work, and I'm sure you are, you can find Surati Studio in Jersey City, near India Square, and I link it up in the show notes. So please, with some other things, check it out. Follow their festivals and performances, or maybe even take one of their classes and become part of this cultural, institution yourself.

Next time on Nat's Sidewalk Stories, I will talk with artist Andrea McKenna. I'm super excited about that. But until then, keep your eyes open for the story hiding and plain sight on your own sidewalks. Our theme music is How You amaze Me, composed by Jim Kalbach and performed by Jim Kalbach, Brian Beninghove, Charlie Siegler and Pat Van Dyke.

I'm Nat Kalbach, and this is it for today from Nat's Sidewalk Stories.

Nathalie Kalbach
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Episode #111: Season 1 Finale - Looking Back and Moving Forward with Nat Kalbach and Chelsea Castro