Out of India, En Masse and on the Way Up

Hinduism is the largest religion in India, with an estimated 800 million among its 1 billion people. At Sri Siva Vishnu in Lanham, the region's largest Hindu temple, members are connected through an electronic newsletter sent to about 18,000 families.

Jainism originated in the 6th century B.C. as a small minority religion with an emphasis on non-violence, equality and spiritual independence. Sikhism, with about 25 million followers worldwide, stresses equality, and its followers identify themselves with five physical emblems, including a turban to protect their unshorn hair. In the past decade, four Sikh gurdwaras have opened in Burke, Gainesville, Herndon, Sterling -- catering to the fast-growing number of Indian Sikhs in Northern Virginia. Members of the Singh Sabha Gurdwara bought land on Braddock Road in Fairfax and meet in trailers as they wait for construction to be completed on a new building on the site.

"The Sikh population in Washington was very small just a few years ago, but now our numbers are among the largest of Indians," said Manbir Singh Kathuria, president of Singh Sabha Gurdwara.

Links in a Long Chain

Soon after receiving his citizenship, Mohan Kapani applied to bring his five siblings and their families here. "I wanted to give my siblings the same opportunities I had here," said Kapani, 74, who started Fairfax-based Computer Based Systems, a data center management company, after retiring from IBM. He sold it six years ago for $26 million.

Kapani was eventually able to bring his two brothers, three sisters and their families here. Their children went back to India to marry and brought their spouses to the United States. Today about 150 members of his family reside in Northern Virginia.

Last year, 26,962 Indians were issued family-sponsored visas to immigrate to the United States, according to the State Department. Indians sponsored more family members than Koreans, Vietnamese, Salvadorans and any African groups, a key factor behind the rapid growth of the Indian community.

Immigrants sponsored by relatives instead of by large companies often have a more difficult time finding good jobs. Rajesh Kapani was 21 when his uncle brought his family here in 1976. While his father, Rajinder Kapani, was hired as a computer engineer for Fairfax County, Rajesh couldn't find a job in his profession, mechanical engineering. The best he could do was a $2.50 an hour job at a circuit board manufacturing plant in Fairfax County.

"I was, of course, not happy with that. I didn't expect for that when we came," said Rajinder Kapani, 73, sitting recently in the living room of the $2 million Chantilly home he shares with his daughter, Khosla, her husband and their two teenage girls, who attend Flint Hill, a private school in Oakton.

Rajesh worked for years at the circuit board factory and at a post office branch near his family's apartment in Falls Church. But when he married and brought his wife, Renu, from India, he decided he had to earn more money. In 1988, he opened a franchise of Mail Services Etc., using $40,000 in savings and money borrowed from his family. "It was clear that owning a business was the only way to really grow financially," Rajesh said.

Two years ago, after selling the mail business, Rajesh and Renu bought a Subway sandwich franchise at Potomac Mills Mall. On a recent afternoon, Renu stood in a black apron and Subway hat, speaking Hindi to three employees from Nepal. They are recent immigrants who have come to work for the Kapanis to learn how to run their own sandwich store.

"It's like a chain. I am just one link in the middle and there will be many more to come," 50-year-old Rajesh said.

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

Khosla, 43, said the entrepreneurial instinct is not something that was cultivated in India. When she wanted to leave her first job as an Interior Department accountant, "my mother cried," Khosla said. "In India, a government job is held in very high esteem and people stay for life."

But she saw her father work for 30 years for Fairfax County as a computer systems engineer and retire with only a pension, while business owners she knew were quickly amassing wealth. "Being in the U.S., there are so many opportunities you would not have thought of in India," she said.

Khosla said she was one of the first Indian realtors in Northern Virginia. She became a top producer by developing a reputation as someone who would teach new immigrants about mortgages and the legal proceedings of buying a home. While working in real estate, she also opened four Indian restaurants -- Cafe Taj in McLean, Aroma in the District, Kebab Masala in Alexandria and Taj Bar & Grill in Fairfax.

Her restaurants employed dozens of South Asians as cooks and waiters. In the late 1990s, Khosla sold the restaurants and started a high-tech firm. She opened Digital Inc., which trained people to become Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers. At the firm's peak, Khosla had 80 employees, including about 30 from India on H-1B visas. When the company closed in 2003 after the tech bubble burst, Khosla lost more than $2 million.

She promptly returned to selling real estate, tapping into her vast Rolodex of Indian clients. Last year, she had raised enough money through commissions to open three real estate-related companies with her husband, Rick, and her father.

Despite the housing market's slowdown, she says she has plenty of new clients. She has hired a South Korean sales agent, who has brought in a number of Korean clients. But about 90 percent of her business still comes from potential home buyers of South Asian descent, because Indians keep moving to the area.

"Indians have the capital to buy," she said, "and families are only getting bigger."