It's the last
day of May and time for our final story.
Our 12th story celebrating Asian American
and Pacific Islander Heritage month tonight.
CBS 8 Brian White highlights our local
Indian American community and takes
us to a temple in Mira Mesa. Ohm.
Many people in the Indian culture,
the temple, plays a central
role in their community.
Here at the Shree Mandir temple
in Mira Mesa, Hindu priest Sudarshan
Batter stands before the altar praying to
one of their many avatars in Sanskrit.
It is saying you are the unbinding TV.
We are humbled. We are in front of you,
Raghunatha. But again, a mahad.
So total surrendering to the
God and then accepting what he's
giving in through the water.
He's like a blessing.
What we are getting into our life.
The Shree Mandir temple has
been in San Diego for 30 years.
Currently located in an area of
Mere Mesa called Little India,
Raj Aggarwal is president of the
Temples Executive Committee and he says
Hinduism is known for its flexibility.
No two people are alike,
so it allows the flexibility to.
Connect directly to God so there is
nobody in between you and God. For
many Indian Americans living
in San Diego, this temple is a
place for peace and calm. Just
get rid of everything.
Just stay calm and sit for a
few minutes and you will be
come out with the calmness,
the peace and everyone is
very welcoming and they
do the Puja very
very sincerely. The
temple sits in a Plaza called
Little India Center on Miramar
Rd with Indian restaurants,
clothing stores and grocery stores.
All within close proximity at
the Chennai Tiffins restaurant,
Dave Mudai enjoys a delicious lunch
with what's called a South Indian tally.
You know all these lentils and this
is are all like a a suji. It's called
a kind of a desert
when he wants to cook for himself,
he shops at the nearby Akshar cashing
Carey for their wide selection of spices.
Like you know cinnamon and
then cloves and carmens,
Akshar store manager Neton Petyo gave
me a tour of their grocery store.
Pointing out all the many products
that are imported straight from India,
this is all Pickles. It's give you
extra taste and extra jump in your food,
he says. Customers appreciate
having a little slice of their
home country here in San Diego.
When people see this, all products
people get really excited like yeah,
see this is the thing what
I want from my home country
at a nearby clothing store
called Bombay Fashion owners who
Courier josin points out the many
styles of clothing they carry.
He says it's a reflection of how diverse.
India actually is on this wall.
You see a dress
called lehenga choli. These designs
are very well embellished and
it's full of colours with over 30,000
Indian Americans living in San Diego.
Their population here is growing as a
beauty of their culture has become an
integral part of the fabric of our city.
Everybody needs their own culture and
then they need to respect each other.
I like I love that part growing diversity.
You know, that's that's the America,
right? Well melting pot
in mirror. Lisa, I'm
Brian white. For CBSE.
I've so enjoyed learning a little
bit about so many of our API
communities and each culture
is so unique, so different.
We've done 12 stories this month.
Yeah, for Asian American and
Pacific Islander Heritage month,
and I just I've learned so much
I have to and and there's still just
small slices we we look at India.
We think about the US as a big country,
about 335 to 340 million people.
India has 1.3 something.
I mean it's massive and there are so
many different types of cultures.
Within it, but you know what
touching some of it doing these
stories has been a fun process,
gotten so much wonderful feedback.
We did an hour long show yesterday and
it's just been really a joy when I
first moved to San Diego 18 years ago,
we didn't even acknowledge the month,
so the fact that we were able to
shine a spotlight on many of our API
communities makes me really proud.
It's been a good month we've enjoyed it.