In 1961, Hollywood's golden girl, Audrey Hepburn, sat in a Manhattan apartment wearing her iconic dress, long cigarette holder in hand, and uttered words that would unexpectedly find new resonance more than six decades later: "Now, if I could choose from anybody alive, I wouldn't pick Jose. Nehru, maybe."
Cut to 2025 - another November night, another New York moment - when Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected Mayor of New York City, quoted Jawaharlal Nehru in his victory speech.
"Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru - a moment comes, but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance."
And just like that, across decades and continents, India's first Prime Minister, the man once name-dropped in a whimsical Hollywood rom-com, became the unlikely thread connecting two very different cultural milestones.
The Night New York Found A New Voice
Zohran Mamdani's mayoral win marks a defining political shift in New York's history. The 34-year-old Democratic socialist, born to Ugandan historian Mahmood Mamdani and acclaimed Indian filmmaker Mira Nair, became the first Indian-American Muslim and the youngest person ever elected Mayor of New York City.
In his moving victory speech, Mamdani drew from Nehru's words to signal a generational and ideological change. "Tonight, we have stepped out from the old into the new," he declared to a cheering crowd.
"Friends, we have toppled a political dynasty. I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life, but let tonight be the final time I utter his name as we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few. New York tonight you have delivered," he said, addressing his historic victory over former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa.
"We won because New Yorkers allowed themselves to hope that the impossible could be made possible, and we won because we insisted that no longer would politics be something that is done to us. Now, it is something that we do," Mamdani continued.
He ended with a promise that resonated deeply across boroughs and backgrounds: "We will fight for you; because we are you. Today we have spoken in a clear voice, hope is alive."
When Holly Golightly Dreamt Of Nehru
The Internet, however, has a knack for weaving unexpected parallels. Just hours after Mamdani's speech went viral, another clip began circulating - this time, from Breakfast at Tiffany's, the 1961 romantic comedy that made Audrey Hepburn a cultural icon.
Uploaded by author Neyaz Farooquee, the clip features Hepburn's character, Holly Golightly, dreamily musing about her ideal romantic partners.
"Now, if I could choose from anybody alive, I wouldn't pick Jose. Nehru, maybe," she says with a glimmer of mischief. She then adds, "Albert Schweitzer and Leonard Bernstein," rounding out her whimsical list of dream lovers.
"When Audrey Hepburn dreamt of romancing Nehru," read the caption of the video, and the Internet couldn't resist the serendipity.
When Audrey Hepburn dreamt of romancing Nehru. pic.twitter.com/mWGOKzCcLu
— Neyaz Farooquee (@nafsmanzer) January 4, 2023
To clarify, the idea of Audrey Hepburn romancing Jawaharlal Nehru comes from this fictional moment in Breakfast at Tiffany's, not her real life.
The Parallels
In 1961, Breakfast at Tiffany's painted New York as a place of reinvention - where love, ambition, and longing could coexist in a swirl of sophistication and solitude.
In 2025, Zohran Mamdani's New York feels not so different. His campaign was built on the promise of hope, equality, and community - ideals not unlike Nehru's own dream for a nation finding its voice.
