We see him here, we see him there – these days, we see Zohran everywhere.Anyone who’s anyone has commented on him – some ecstatic, some apoplectic, some just plain confused. Is he Hindu? Muslim? None of the above? A communist? A rich, privileged New York City prep-school guy; halal-cart aficionado; Ugandan rapper-dude?Reactions, largely bipartisan, reflect a rare consensus across the board, because the following facts about the guy cannot be denied – and are difficult to use against him: He is young, tall, dark and handsome, with a killer smile and an African middle name; he has a famous mother, brilliant father and a gorgeous wife to boot.There is also total commonality on another point regarding this Urdu- and Hindi-speaking American mayoral candidate. You could be Republican or Democrat, fan or opponent, Black, white, brown or whatever – female, male, a Harvard academic, a well-read politician, a well-bred New Yorker – yet there’s one platform you all share.It is this: every time I turn on the television, looking for the Holy Grail at this point, I come away astonished and disappointed.Not one person, across the board, is able to say Mamdani – OK, maybe one or two can.What is so difficult about this name?The variations are mindboggling. In America, fully grown adults – and the not-so-fully grown up; the well-intentioned and the ill-intentioned; the good, the bad and the ugly – none can say Mamdani! They mumble, Mandami, Mamdami, Madmani, Maadani, but inevitably, after struggling a bit, they succumb to what comes most easily, which is always wrong.Is it possible that America, the destination of immigrants for centuries, the crucible of the world, is a tinge xenophobic, or a little reluctant to take in the latest batch of arrivals? It has happened before: witness the Irish, Jewish, Italian story. Just a few days ago, a journalist on a popular television show corrected Andrew Cuomo when he mispronounced Mamdani. He told Cuomo (no political ingénue) that, as a candidate in this most diverse city, he could begin by learning to pronounce his opponent’s name.Did it make a difference?No.Americans, linguistically challenged – or so it would seem – handily give Zohran an approximation of his last name. No harm intended, without malafides (for the most part), I’m willing to bet. There’s no weaponising here by opponents, as far as one can tell, nor any evil intent – certainly nothing like the barrage of racist and misogynistic name-calling Kamala Harris endured.A strange thing happened here: Since no one could pronounce Mamdani correctly, it took the sting out of it for putative mischief-makers.Nothing deliberate here – the inability to say Mamdani is shared by one and all, as amazing as that is. No insult, just ignorance.What is so difficult about MAMDANI?It looks easy enough in its spelling. Is it our challenged phonetic palette in America, which is surprising seeing how many cultures came here? Perhaps the desire to assimilate quickly in Anglo-centric America erased the wonderful possibilities of native languages and shrank the ability to pronounce words outside the English canon.I used to marvel, along with others, at the facility South Asian students had with Spanish in high school, until a linguist explained to me that their linguistic palette is just much wider. Add to that the non-English conversation at home, and you can now account for South Asian uninhibitedness with foreign languages.Who knows?These lines were written two days ago, but it could have been eons.Today, the world is no longer the same.A Muslim South Asian with an African middle name, Zohran Kwame Mamdani – the youngest ever, with that killer smile and the fire of optimism in his belly – has won the mayoral race in New York City. He has brought disparate groups together and upset the festering applecart; galvanised the young and sent smug politicians, bilious billionaires and senile sinecures scrambling to understand.The young man has a hard road ahead, but there is light now at the end of the Holland Tunnel!And they still cannot pronounce his name!Sudha Koul is the first woman IAS officer from Kashmir.