Sri Lanka, Feb. 19 -- New York City's 112th Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has become an overnight sensation across Sri Lankan social media following a light-hearted street-side encounter with New York-based Sri Lankan comedian Shenuque Tissera.Sri Lanka travel

In the viral clip, Tissera humorously asks the 34-year-old Mayor-who is the city's youngest leader in over a century and its first Muslim and South Asian mayor-how he can become a "good Sri Lankan boy," noting that South Asian parents are now using Mamdani's rapid success as a benchmark for their own children.

Mamdani's response struck a chord with the global Sri Lankan diaspora when he invoked the legacy of cricket legend Muttiah Muralitharan.

Drawing a parallel between the "art of the...