Culture, Campaigns, and Cardamom: Life Hacks from the Mamdani boy

If politics were a brick of vanilla ice cream, then Zohran Mamdani is the chocolate brownie to it, and a proud one at that. Adding the sizzle to the whites, he did it well.

In the chatter of politics, and the fact that there is some election happening every day in the life of an average South Asian—state, national, municipality, building, class, elective subject and more—it is tough to keep track of a nation that neither concerns nor wants me. But what caught my attention about this “Mira Nair ka ladka” was, firstly, Mira Nair herself. The first lady of Indian cinema to win an Oscar nomination and a Golden Lion, she now stands as the first “mummy ji” of New York.

Then came the campaign ad with Bollywood dialogues. To begin with, I cringed. I thought it was the worst representation of what South Asians stand for. After a fair amount of comments in the name of “Desh ka naam kharab kar diya” and “culture cringe,” and the fact that he did win, I now see the genius behind the madness.

So while I contemplated what to write about Zohran, the list went from genius political campaigns, South Asian lineage, to shameless objectification—because why not—I settled on what caught my attention: how this “Young Cardamom” grew into a cardamom blending into the biryani of a fractured political system in the US. And in the opinion of my fairly grey hair, conditioned by the veil of cliché biases, “Ladka heera hai, heera.”

This guy has a lot to teach us, and taking a cue from all the “Baba-jis,” here I decorate some stackable life hacks from the Zohran Mamdani Academy of Life.

The pehli baat is to be oneself, unapologetically. While South Asians often took cover in oblivion to survive in the US, Zohran decided to flaunt his lineage and own every bit of the culture he grew up in. He spoke the language while speaking to his voters, spoke about them, made them feel seen, while seeing himself in them. In a world that teaches you to blend in, he made the decision to stand out. And when you stand out, you walk a few steps, catch the train, and get to new places.

The dusri baat is how Mamdani calls himself a “Democratic Socialist,” in simple words, “Thoda idhar ka, thoda udhar ka.” And while an average personality is often torn between being a gulab jamun or an ice cream, sometimes putting them together creates a whole new dessert—one that I will never personally endorse, but quite happily see being consumed. Ideals blend, philosophies blend, and so do values. In a transient space of thoughts, it’s best to mix and create. He showed us that it is possible to carve one’s own way instead of following norms.

The teesri baat is observation. A campaign, whether political or commercial, is a reflection of the person leading it. The “Zohran for New York” campaign is sprinkled with culture, city, and childcare. The posters designed by his talented wife Rama Duwaji, an animator and illustrator, drew inspiration from the signage of small stores across New York. The colors were bold, like his thoughts, and reflected the culture and city he belonged to. The messaging was simple, direct, local, and genuine. No numbers, no fluff—just conversations and the warmth of familiarity. So much of what people are, not what they think they want, was put into this campaign. In the complex web of convoluted conversations, sometimes the simple route is the best path to meaningful and successful relationships and careers.

And the final baat: being fearless. A rapper called “Young Cardamom” tried his best to find a path in music and failed. He dabbled in ideas and finally found his footing in politics. No regrets, no ego, no fear. His attitude and journey are the proof of the pudding—or in his case, the brownie.

And as I rummage through my last thoughts on this, I picture this smiling man with the most genuine smile. He seems like the poster boy of the child every aunty ji would want as her baccha. I have witnessed the “Apna banda jeet gaya” to “Someone like me is speaking for the oppressed” to “If we ever got approvals, we could build the same campaign.” We all own him in some way; we all owe ourselves in others.