New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani caught the attention of the public, especially Indians, for not just winning the polls but also for an recent video of his. The clip surfaced online just before the US city mayoral elections, showing him casually munching on Rajnigandha silver pearls during a street chat.
The short video, recorded by Brooklyn-based content creator Nicolas Nuvan, shows Mamdani stepping out of a black SUV and being asked if he has eaten. “I did eat today,” he replies with a smile, before pulling out a pack of Rajnigandha — a saffron-blended cardamom seed mouth freshener widely popular in India — and adding, “I’ve also started having a lot of these… it’s like a mint.”
He then offers some to Nuvan, who tastes it and exclaims, “Oh wow, that’s delicious… it feels like I’m consuming perfume.” Without missing a beat, Mamdani responds, “Perfume you can eat.”
The light-hearted exchange has since gone viral and widely shared amid Mamdani’s election, with Indian users flooding the comments section with memes and quips. “No way he just ate Rajnigandha — South Asians will relate,” wrote one user while another, with play on the brand's tagline, replied, “munh mai rajnigandha, kadmon Mei NYC”. A third echoed the brand’s famous slogan, posting, “Muh mai rajnigandha kadmoo mai duniya you did it," with another adding, "Baba elaichi kha rha".
Mamdani, 34, defeated independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa to become New York City’s first Muslim and youngest mayor in over a century. The Indian-origin democratic socialist described his victory as the end of a “political dynasty,” quoting Jawaharlal Nehru’s iconic words: “A moment comes, but rarely in history.”
His win celebration also went viral after he walked off stage to the Bollywood hit Dhoom Machale , drawing cheers from supporters.
The short video, recorded by Brooklyn-based content creator Nicolas Nuvan, shows Mamdani stepping out of a black SUV and being asked if he has eaten. “I did eat today,” he replies with a smile, before pulling out a pack of Rajnigandha — a saffron-blended cardamom seed mouth freshener widely popular in India — and adding, “I’ve also started having a lot of these… it’s like a mint.”
He then offers some to Nuvan, who tastes it and exclaims, “Oh wow, that’s delicious… it feels like I’m consuming perfume.” Without missing a beat, Mamdani responds, “Perfume you can eat.”
The light-hearted exchange has since gone viral and widely shared amid Mamdani’s election, with Indian users flooding the comments section with memes and quips. “No way he just ate Rajnigandha — South Asians will relate,” wrote one user while another, with play on the brand's tagline, replied, “munh mai rajnigandha, kadmon Mei NYC”. A third echoed the brand’s famous slogan, posting, “Muh mai rajnigandha kadmoo mai duniya you did it," with another adding, "Baba elaichi kha rha".
Mamdani, 34, defeated independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa to become New York City’s first Muslim and youngest mayor in over a century. The Indian-origin democratic socialist described his victory as the end of a “political dynasty,” quoting Jawaharlal Nehru’s iconic words: “A moment comes, but rarely in history.”
His win celebration also went viral after he walked off stage to the Bollywood hit Dhoom Machale , drawing cheers from supporters.
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