A few months ago actor Kal Penn went to Senator Barack Obama's office in Washington, DC to see some friends. And he walked into the senator's office and noticed that he had three photographs up on the wall. The first two were of President John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
"And the third photo was of Gandhiji with his spinning wheel," Penn told a gathering of over 800 South Asians who had paid a minimum of $100 for a fundraiser for Obama in New York City. “He put them up as a reminder for the work that needs to be done and the inspiration that carries him forward every day."
"If there is any doubt about his integrity and it's not just that he is rumoured to make amazing dal -- although I have not tasted it yet -- but he really understands the struggle for social justice and civil rights," Penn added as the crowd cheered him.
The August 12th event -- organised in the Hiro Ballroom at the Maritime Hotel in Manhattan's Meat Packing District raised over $100,000 for Obama's presidential campaign. This was the first South Asian benefit for the Illinois senator's run for the White House, said Maulik Pancholy, star of the hit TV shows Weeds and 30 Rock, and the emcee of the evening.
The organisers had originally billed this as a joint evening with Penn and his The Namesake director Mira Nair, along with performances by several New York based artists. But Nair was not present at the event. A source mentioned that she is in China, finishing the shooting of her film Amelia.
Unlike other fundraisers which generally draw wealthy doctors and established entrepreneurs -- including the huge Indian Americans for Hillary event held last year at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, that raised over $2 million for the New York Senator's failed bid for the Democratic Party nomination, the Obama event was packed with young faces -- most in their late 20s or 30s. The Hiro Ballroom, with two bars, several large Asian lamps and a giant disco ball hanging from the ceiling, was a fitting place for those gathered -- young, hip, urban, professionals -- all South Asians and an important demographic base for Obama's political race.
Image: South Asians at the fundraiser at the Hiro Ballroom & Lounge at the Maritime Hotel in New York on August 12
Text: Aseem Chhabra in New York | Photographs: Mohammed Jaffer/SnapsIndia
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