From John Roleke,
Your Guide to Queens, NY.
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Backtrack a few storefronts to Butala Emporium, a perfect place to find an Indian gift. Yes, Ganesh, Durga, Shiva, and other deities are there in print and statue form, along with incense, clothes, stamps, and religious charms at decent prices. In the corner there's a well-stocked news rack with South Asian weeklies and monthlies and other printed matter—even comic book renditions of the Hindu epics alongside soap opera magazines. Further back, the walls are stocked with English texts on the study of the South Asian subcontinent. Downstairs, find intricately carved wooden furniture at good prices. There are also Indian instruments of top quality, like the tabla drum, dholak, sitar, and harmonium. Butala is a place where you can spend a quarter or a thousand dollars, and leave with a treasure.

Stroll down 74th Street and other shops beckon. Some brilliantly. Almost every other storefront is a jewelry shop where 22 karat gold predominates. Unlike the 14k, this rich gold is a heavy, almost dull color that makes up for its lack of shine with its beautiful dense sheen and malleability, which allows for more intricate, fantastic designs. Sona Jewelry of London and Sona Chandi seem typical of the small shops.

If you do pick up jewelry, you must get all spiffed up. There are several beauty salons, such as Gulzar Beauty Salon, that feature traditional henna tattooing -— called mehndi -— and hair removal by (hopefully painless) threading, not the brutal wax and strip. Can you pull off wearing a sari to go with that gold and henna? It takes impeccable posture. At least window shop for saris at regal clothing stores like Neena Sari Palace or the ISP (Indian Sari Palace).

The Essentials
Butala Emporium
37-46 74th St.
Jackson Heights, NY
http://www.indousbooks.com

Sona Chandi
37-14 74th St.
Jackson Heights, NY
718-429-4653

Gulzar Beauty Salon
74-01B Roosevelt Ave.
Jackson Heights, NY
718-779-2800

ISP (Indian Sari Palace)
37-07 74th St.
Jackson Heights, NY

Neena Sari Palace
37-23 74th St.
Jackson Heights, NY
718-651-1500

• More: Jackson Heights Neighborhood Profile