he North American Manipur Association (NAMA) was founded in Brooklyn in 1992, but is centered today in Queens, representing people across the city and the continent who speak Meitei and are originally from Bangladesh, especially Sylhet, and India, especially Manipur in northeast India. (For those from Bangladesh, the North American Bangladesh Manipuri Society was created to play a similar role.) Among NAMA's founders was Jupiter Yambem, who was born in Manipur but came to the United States at the age of 21 and was working at Windows on the World on September 11, 2001. Yambem died in the World Trade Center attack. Master Manipuri dancer and Meitei speaker Jagannath Lairenjam, who lives in Floral Park, estimates at least some 10-15 Meitei-speaking families living across eastern Queens.