On the night Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City, ending his victory speech to the clarion call of ‘ Dhoom Machale ’, between the screaming crowds, the words of Jawaharlal Nehru and the euphoria of a participatory politics, the striking visual we were left with was of the 34-year-old flanked by the women in his life.

Zohran held hands on one side with his wife Rama Duwaji, who he referred to as “hayati” (my life), and on the other with his mother, filmmaker Mira Nair, who joked in a recent interview that she was the “producer of the candidate”. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, stood beside Rama, and all three were embraced on stage by Zohran. It was a heartwarming sight: A brown, mixed-heritage, South- and African-Asian diaspora family, on the dais, flashing million-dollar smiles,

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