When Sharmila Mohanraj immigrated from India to the East Bay city of Concord at the age of 24, she often felt isolated. She struggled to find a strong Indian community that she could spend time with while her husband was at work — let alone people who spoke her native language of Tamil.
“You didn’t see a lot of Indian people there, or Tamil being spoken,” she said. “It was super lonely.”
Nearly two decades later, that is no longer the case. The Tri-Valley, where Mohanraj now lives, is home to some of the fastest-growing cities in the state — growth fueled by high-earning professionals who can afford these new suburban subdivisions. Disproportionately, those professionals are Asian American, and in particular Indian American, many re-creating Silicon Valley life in the green fields and wide open spaces of the East Bay…