Little India

Jackson Heights, long a magnet for immigrants starting businesses, has attracted an innovative bank dedicated to helping new ventures with small loans.

The neighborhood, filled with shops and cafes run by immigrants from India, Bangladesh, Colombia and Mexico, was chosen last year as the first location of the U.S. office of Grameen Bank.

Grameen is a microfinance organization that began in Bangladesh in 1983. Since then, Grameen has lent money to millions of poor people around the world, helping them build businesses that improve their standard of living. Grameen’s founder, Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Prize for his work in 2006.

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To find the tailor of 37th Avenue, you have to allow yourself to get lost.

You can start by meandering down the avenue in Jackson Heights, past the discount stores and street vendors hawking samosas, nuts and the Holy Koran. Then you Cross Kalpana Chalwa Way, named after the Indian-American astronaut who perished in the 2003 Columbia explosion and come to JMD, where rows of saris glimmer in the window. Walk down the staircase to the underground mall, past the beauty salon specializing in herbal waxes and a tiny store selling Bollywood videos.

This is where you will find Abdul Majid, hunched over a Juki sewing machine set directly into the table in front of him.

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