Rubina Ali, 9, was plucked from the tin roof shack she shares with her parents and six siblings in this squalid Mumbai slum to star in 'Slumdog Millionaire,' the darling of this year's Academy Awards. Her friend and neighbor, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, was also chosen for the film, and both were flown to Los Angeles to watch 'Slumdog' nab eight Academy Awards, including the Oscars' highest honor for best film.

Crowds gathered around the few television sets in the slum and it took barely a minute for word of each award to spread through the slum's winding lanes.

The Bandra slum could not be farther from the Hollywood glitz, stretch limousines and designer dresses of the Oscars. Azhar lives in a lean-to made of plastic tarpaulins and moldy blankets. Rubina's home is perched above an ocean of trash. Dirty train tracks and a clogged highway form the slum's borders.

Hordes of journalists descended on the neighbourhood on Monday. TV tripods straddled the thin stream of sewage outside Rubina's home while rows of satellite trucks idled outside a usually sleepy tea stall.

If the Oscar excitement brought a sheen of glamour to the community, it vanished on Monday shortly after the final award was announced. The journalists left, the dancing stopped and life pressed on as always. The sweatshop men hunched over humming sewing machines. Squatting children relieved themselves by the train tracks. Mothers washed their dishes in murky water.

Danny Boyle - who won the Oscar for best director - and producer Christian Colson decided to help Azhar and Rubina by securing them spots in Aseema, a nonprofit, English-language school in Mumbai.

Rubina's parents were thrilled with Boyle and his team. 'Whatever a parent could have done, they have done much more than that,' Rafiq Qureshi said during the run-up to the awards.

Neighbors said they were nothing but happy for the child actors. 'It's Rubina's fate,' said Mohammed Muzzammil, 22. 'We don't want anything from her success.' Rubina's best friend Saba Qureshi wants something, however - lots of stories and pictures from Los Angeles.

'My eyes couldn't believe that I was seeing Rubina in America,' said Saba, who led her sisters in Bollywood dance numbers throughout the morning. 'She looked like an angel.' 'When she comes back,' Saba said, 'we will have the biggest party.' -- AP