'Vindaloo against violence' Indian food campaign a sell out
''Vindaloo against violence'', a mass Indian cuisine dining event to protest against attacks on Indians and to make Australians let their tastebuds do the talking here, is becoming a sell out.
Concerned over her city's reputation in India being dubbed as 'Racist', a Melbournian lady is spearheading the novel idea - 'Vindaloo Against Violence' - to flavour Indian food in a bid to show the immense support to the Indian community.
A brainchild of Mia Northrop, a digital media designer, who said the idea had started as a grassroot campaign but soon exploded on social networking site Facebook registering more than 10,000 participants.
She said that the idea had even caught Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's attention who had joined the campaign through the micro-blogging site Twitter.
"We were looking for an idea to embrace the sizable Indian community here and we found no better way to bind Australians to India than through world famous Indian flavours", Northrop was quoted by 'Business Times'.
"The idea is that you just go to your local Indian restaurant and just dine on Indian food as a way of embracing the Indian community," she said adding "[My husband and I] wanted something that the maximum number of people could get behind, so it just kind of popped into my head," Northrop said.
Attacks against Indians including beatings and robberies have mushroomed over the last two years, threatening to damage ties between the two countries.
Australian officials who initially sought to downplay racism as the reason behind the sharp spurt in attacks against Indians are now pitching for taking a stronger line of cracking down hard on the culprits.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the attacks were "inexcusable" and were being taken very seriously by the government. He vowed to "punish the culprits with the full force of law".
But now, a small idea to embrace the Indian community has become a sell out and "Vindaloo against violence", the mass dining event is scheduled for February 24.
Restaurants across Melbourne are booked out and schools and companies have registered it as an event.
"Its really not about the food. A night out at Indian restaurants is just a vehicle to tap the silence majority to put it across that they are against such attacks" Northrop said gleefully surprised by the response from the city.
According to local estimates, there are 450,000 Indians living in Australia out of which 120,000 are students and most of them are residents in Melbourne.
