Washington, Feb.
22: All the attention that Slumdog Millionaire is getting at the Oscars at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles has spawned a movement across the US to help children from the slums of Mumbai. From Washington in the east to Los Angeles in the west, a Slumdog mania is sweeping in its wake hundreds of Americans &mdash not merely Indian Americans &mdash to Oscar-viewing parties that have been planned as fund-raisers to mitigate the sufferings of Jamal Maliks and Latikas that are described in the Indo-British film in a manner that is shocking to most western audiences. At Columbia University in New York, the world&146s oldest university organisation of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, the Columbia Queer Alliance, is hosting a viewing party at the university&146s Roone Alredge Cinema with the politically correct theme of &145Slumdog Millionaire or Milk&146 The latter is a reference to Milk, another movie vying for the Oscars. It is about the life of Harvey Milk, who was murdered while fighting in the infancy of America&146s gay movement for equal rights for homosexuals. The theme is a pun on the names of the two Oscar-nominated films on what urgently matters to slumdogs: milk or millionaire status. The Columbia Queer Alliance has existed since 1967 and its leaders claim a legacy of &147pioneering activism and social justice&148. The alliance has teamed up with Club Zamana, the university&146s largest South Asian organisation, for tonight&146s party in New York. In downtown Washington last night, about 200 people packed the Panache Restaurant and Lounge to hear DJ Ali Ji belt out music from Slumdog &mdash its upbeat finale Jai Ho and Lankan-origin rapper M.I.A.&146s hit, Paper Planes.
Pushpa Koneri, one of the organisers, said the entire proceeds from last night&146s event, would be donated to Hamara Foundation, which runs a development initiative for street children in Mumbai. The foundation began operating as a part of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai in 1989 and became a full-fledged NGO in 2002.