Containing Multitudes

I got to thinking today how we find ourselves become a part of multiple worlds that are so distant from each other. And often times you can feel rejected from all of them as a result.

Which is perhaps ONE of the MANY reasons I love the well-known modern trailblazer NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani. I can resonate with the multitudes he contains that perfectly represent the immigrant identity. And unlike most of us, he is an anomaly who's perfectly made peace with this identity and learned to be proud of it and never apologize for it.

He's patriotic towards all the places, communities and ideas he's found to be his home.

I see him at a Shia majlis with a beautiful noha being recited at the back that reminds me of my home and childhood. I see him hugging his mother, Mira Nair, who happens to be one of my filmmaking heroes. He's seen having dinner with music artists like Julian Casablancas and Ali Sethi who are my teenage music obsessions. He is then proposing unique ideas I am only able to see the validity of because of my childhood affinity for Noam Chomsky's writings. He is then seen at a pride rally I would want to be a part of as an adult but that my Muslim friends and family would look down upon. See him at a mosque and in a church. In a temple and a synagogue. In parties and on the streets. With Pakistanis and with Indians. With Bengalis and Nepalis. With Arabs, African Americans, hot girls and hot guys.

In a world where these different worlds are seen as a contradiction, Zohran owns up for his love and connection to all of them. He belongs to all of these worlds without friction.

I think what I love about him is that he makes you believe that this very thing is possible.(among, of course, the many things he makes you believe are possible like getting the 80% of the population younger than 30 to vote for you, in a society where no one cares to vote).

One word or phrase should never define a person.

"Communist Mayoral candidate proposes destructive ideas for New York City",

"Pro-LGBTQ Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani gets criticism from Muslim community",

"Shia Muslim Mayor Wins Race".

People are quick to put everyone into a box and judge them on basis of that. If you're in the Muslim box, you can't be in the Pro-LGBTQ box. If you’re in the Progressive box, you can’t be in the Patriotic box.

Truth is there are no boxes. We're all of these things at once.

Zohran doesn’t end at "Muslim", “Shia”, "Socialist" or “Democrat”.

Humans are the sum of all their homes. There’s all of Zohran Mamdani. There’s all of Zaheer Abbas. There’s all of all of us.