When the filmmaker Mira Nair was first trying to make her name in New York, living in a loft on the Bowery in the 1980s, she used to see a homeless man who greeted her with a spin on the tagline for the news-radio station 1010 WINS: “Give me 10 minutes, I’ll give you the world.” She remembered empathizing with struggling, poor New Yorkers and those trying to find their way.
This morning, as revelers watched the ball drop in Times Square at midnight to celebrate the new year, she and her husband, Mahmood Mamdani, stood in an abandoned underground subway station and watched their son, Zohran Mamdani, get sworn in to run the city where they raised him.
Mr. Mamdani’s parents were part of a private swearing-in event under the vaulted ceilings of the old City Hall subway stop. They also planned to attend the ceremonial inauguration outside City Hall in the afternoon, where Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was expected to swear-in their son, followed by a block party on Broadway in Lower Manhattan.
“We are following Z around as much as we can,” Ms. Nair, 68, wrote in a text on Tuesday, adding that they would be buying special heat gear from Uniqlo to stay warm.
Her other plans for this morning were to “take a walk in Riverside Park to ponder what I could do as the first mother of the city.”
Mahmood Mamdani, 79, a professor of international affairs and the author of books on colonialism and political conflict, put his plans simply: “We will be wherever we can be.”
He added, “We look forward to a joyous time.”
Mr. Mamdani’s parents said they would cap off the formal celebrations with a family affair, hosting a dinner Thursday evening for their son; his wife, Rama Duwaji; Ms. Duwaji’s parents and possibly some friends. (During the campaign, Ms. Nair said she delighted in feeding her son and some of his staffers biryani and the “big salad” Mr. Mamdani loves, made with farmer’s market arugula, tomato and roasted pine nuts.)
Mr. Mamdani, at 34, is decades younger than his two predecessors, neither of whom had living parents to join them when they were sworn in.
Still, mayors tend to find a way of getting their mothers involved. In 2021, Eric Adams was sworn in while holding up a photo of his mother, Dorothy Mae Adams-Streeter, who cleaned houses to support him and his five siblings. In 2010, Michael Bloomberg planned to take the oath of office using a 1909 Bible that belonged to his mother, Charlotte Bloomberg.
Ms. Nair and Mahmood Mamdani have moved in star-studded and rarefied circles. Their careers took them around the world — for Ms. Nair, filming in the streets of Mumbai’s red-light district and accepting awards at Cannes, and for Mr. Mamdani, teaching in cities around the world, from Dar es Salaam to Cape Town. Now the duo has joined the tiny club of people who have watched their children snag the keys to City Hall.
It would be natural for the pair to be tempted to document a historic week for a city on the cusp of big shifts. But Zohran Mamdani’s campaign spokeswoman said that Ms. Nair is partaking in the festivities just as the mayor-elect’s mother, not a documentarian.
Emma Goldberg is a Times reporter who writes about political subcultures and the way we live now.
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