Walking along Park Extension, it’s hard to miss the sounds and colours of Montreal’s South Asian community. Among the different restaurants and stores that sell everything from biryani to the latest Bollywood-inspired outfits, stands Bazaar Oriental, a store that has been catering to Montreal’s Hindu and Sikh communities since 1992. True to its name, the store is a treasure house of all things useful and nostalgic from the shores of the East.
Owner Sushil Suri started out by renting Bollywood movie videos in the West Island. “When I arrived here, there was no store that sold Hindu or Sikh religious items,” he recalls. Sushil attempted to fill that void, first by selling bhajan (Hindu devotional songs) CDs and gradually moving on to idols and an array of religious items. Over the years, thanks to his family-owned export business back home, Sushil has been able to expand his store’s product range. It now includes all kinds of handy items you would typically only find in India’s metros or temple towns.
