Ankit Jain - Championing Change - IndianCommunity

Join us on the Indian Community Podcast as host Amit Gupta and co-host Rahul Mehra engage in a riveting conversation with Ankit Jain, an attorney and D.C. Shadow Senator candidate deeply committed to advocating for over 700,000 taxpaying Americans. Ankit shares his multifaceted journey from growing up near Washington D.C. to fighting major polluters as a lawyer with the Sierra Club, all driven by his parents' struggle for citizenship and his personal loss of rights upon moving to D.C.

In this episode, Ankit reflects on the humorous misconceptions his father held about America, his current role with FairVote championing ranked choice voting, and his candid thoughts on how immigration has historically shaped America's greatness. He delves into his decision to run for D.C. Shadow Senator with the mission to attain statehood for D.C., offering residents the democratic rights they deserve.

Learn about the recent law passed in D.C. allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections, Ankit's affection for the multiculturalism and weather of Bangalore, and his insights into the importance of field operations in political campaigns. Tune in to discover Ankit Jain's inspiring story, his vision for a more democratic, inclusive society, and how he plans to bring about change at the grassroots level.

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Transcript

0:52

Hello and welcome to the Indian Community Podcast. I'm your host, Amit Gupta, along with my co host, Rahul Mehra. Today we're talking with Ankit Jain. Ankit is running for the DC Shadow Senator. He wants to give a voice to over 700, 000 taxpaying Americans. He's also working as an attorney supporting FairVote, which is a nonpartisan organization seeking better election. Ankit's goal is to make DC a state. He was born to Indian parents near Washington, D. C. and was driven by their fight for citizenship. He realized he lost some rights when he moved to D. C. As a lawyer for the Sierra Club, he fought big polluters and the Trump border wall, winning an important case. His work in Pennsylvania helped deal with old wells, showing his dedication to environmental fairness. Ankit also pushes for DC to become a state and encourages young people to get involved in democracy. He supports ranked choice voting and has made a big difference in local politics. A graduate of Columbia Law, he led a march in New York City for stricter gun laws. His past work with the DC public defender Hillary Clinton's campaign and Patrick Murphy's Senate campaign has shaped him into a powerful activist. Let's learn more about Ankit's achievements, challenges, and his hopes for a better and fair society. Welcome to the show, Ankit. Hey, good morning, Ankit. Welcome to the Indian Community Podcast. Thanks for having me. Glad to be here. Good morning, Ankit. Good morning, Rahul. Great. Thank you. And you know, I just wanted to congratulate you and wish you a very happy new year. It is the first day of the new year and you're also the first guest of 2024. Okay, there we go. Starting at the starting it off on the right foot, hopefully. Excellent. Thank you. So, Ankit you know, let's, let's hear from you in terms of a little bit about yourself, a small introduction, and, and you know, something about your family and your journey to the United States. Yeah, so obviously my name is Ankit Jain. I grew up in the D. C. area in a suburb of Washington, D. C. called Fairfax, and so my parents they came to the U. S. in the 80s and and then they met, they met in the U. S. I was born actually outside San Francisco, but I moved when I was nine months old to Fairfax. And so I've been in the area for a while. I kind of left the area for undergrad for law school and then came back after law school. So I'm a lawyer. I currently I'm working for this organization called FairVote, which is the main ranked choice voting advocacy group in the country. And prior to that, I was working at the Sierra Club, which is an environmental organization. And you know, I've been interested. In these kinds of political issues for a while I'm sure we can get into it, kind of what led me down this path, but I, I, democracy reform, as I think you can tell already, is one of my main passions, and so, I, living in D. C., you know, we actually don't have the right to vote in D. C., because D. C. is not a state, and so, that has been something that I've been involved in and trying to fight back against that, give us, in Washington, D. C., the democratic rights everybody else in this country has. And I've been working on that for the past few years, and this year, I decided to, to run for this position of D. C. shadow senator, which is, the main job is to fight for D. C. to be a state, to give us our democratic rights, because I think we need someone in the position who can actually make statehood happen, and that's what I hope to do. So Amit sorry, Ankit, what do you mean by standing for a shadow senator? Yeah, so you know, Washington, D. C., we don't have any senators or representatives. And because we're not a state. So basically we have no representation in Congress. For that reason, the DC government has created two shadow senators and one shadow representative to advocate for DC to be a state. To fight back against Congress's efforts to overturn our local laws, because D. C. is entirely federal land, so Congress can do whatever it wants to D. C. right now. And then to serve as almost elected lobbyist for D. C. issues before the U. S. Senate to try to make Congress work in a positive way with D. C. instead of a negative way. So we're elected on the ballot as if we were full senators. We just don't have that vote in Congress. We're more like the leaders of the statehood community in DC, the organizing the campaigns to make statehood happen, to stop Congress from, from interfering in our affairs. Okay. All right. Excellent. Yes. Thank you for that, Ankit. Ankit you mentioned about you know, your parents and your journey to, to where you are today. So tell us a little bit about your parents and how was their experience, especially arriving in the United States in the early eighties because we were much younger than there was it was a time when there was no internet, there was no mobile phones and, you know, Okay. It's, it was a very different world from what we recognize this planet as today. So share us a little bit more about you know, the stories that you've heard and what their experiences were. I mean, my, my parents really did not know a lot about the U S I think when they came here, I would say, especially my dad. So my dad tells a story that. He was told that in the U. S. instead of water fountains, they have Coke fountains. So instead of going to get water, you just drink Coke. Obviously, that's not, not true, but he actually really believed it when he came to the U. S. And he was like, where's the Coke fountains? And, and so, you know I think that they were not quite sure what they were getting into. So my dad, he came here to, to get a Ph. D. in, in statistics. From the University of University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign. And he came both of my parents are from Uttar Pradesh, but he came from UP and then my mom, she came because my, my my nana and my basically my mom's uncle had come to the U. S. many years before, my mom's uncle and aunt, and they Were had become U. S. citizens and they were able to sponsor other people to come in. So they sponsored my mom to come and they were like, Oh, come see what it's like. You can, you know, if you don't like America, you can go back to India. And so I think that conservatives sometimes call, call this quote unquote chain migration. So I am a proud product of chain migration. And and so I was able to so my mom was able to come here for, for that, that reason. My dad came here for the Ph. D. And my mom actually ended up my mom's uncle and aunt. They were like, you know, she, she such a great place. We should see if she, you know, try to convince her to stay here. So they were trying to convince her to stay here. They started looking for relationships for marriages. And they came across my dad, you know, back in the eighties. I think you guys might know this, whether younger people might not. Before the internet, they used to have the matrimonial sections of the newspapers, right? And so they had that in the U. S., they had India Abroad, and then India Abroad had the matrimonial section. So my dad put up a a listing in India Abroad, and he was in California, my mom was in Fairfax, and she's, they saw the listing. In the India abroad matrimonial section and they reached out to him. And so then my parents just met that way. My dad flew to Fairfax, Virginia and ended up working out. So they ended up getting married. And so it was really you know, both of them, I don't think either of them really maybe thought they were going to stay in the U. S. long term. My mom was going to, you know, see what it was like and probably go back to India. My dad was going to get a statistics PhD and go back to India, didn't end up working out that way. My dad ended up staying in the U. S. long term. My dad is an interesting story. He got really into the card game bridge and and betting on professional sports and stopped making progress on his dissertation. And he was actually kicked out of his PhD dissertation program. Ended up getting a getting a master's salvaging that. And getting finding a job in the U. S. In California, and then just decided to stay here, you know, had the job. Then he met my mom and then they, you know, rest is history. I guess I just said he just ended up staying here. I don't think he would have told you what he was around my age that he was going to be in the U. S. Long term. Excellent. Excellent. That's, that's a, that's a fantastic story. Especially the fountain soda. So in fact, Ankit, you'll be, you'll be surprised. Like when I was growing up in India, that's what we used to call Coke. You know, we used to call it fountain soda. You know, especially the ones that you know, you see at these kiosks where you, you press a button and the soda pops up. And we used to call that fountain soda. So I, I don't blame your dad for expecting a Mountain of Coke. Yeah. He landed over here. We all land with so many misconceptions about this land. But it's, it's a beautiful country and, and you know, we really appreciate the opportunity to be, to be living here. So that's great. And I also know there's there's one other a fun story about your dad and his, you know, struggle for the green card. Yeah. Would you like to share that one? Yeah. I mean so My dad, after he married my mom, he decided, you know, I want to stay in the U. S. permanently. He was on the H 1B visa at the time. So he applied for a green card, employment based green card. As I'm sure many of your viewers know, as you all know, it takes months to years to get a green card application process. This was true when he applied in like late 80s, early 90s. Also true today. I think even more so today. And so he had applied for his green card. This is before the internet. And so back then, the way that they process applications, you apply and you have to wait for your date to come up for your application to be processed. And the way they let people know when their date was up for processing was the local immigration office would paste a piece of paper outside the immigration office window. And saying these application dates are now being processed. And so you know my, my dad's local immigration office, they actually, what they started to do was they only process a certain number of applications every day, and then they would close for the day, no matter how quickly or slowly they went. And so people started to realize this. And so they wanted to make sure their application was processed that day. So they started to show up right when the doors opened when to make sure their application was processed. And then people, you know, started to realize people are starting to break when the doors open. So then people started showing up 10 minutes early. Then they started showing up an hour early and then they started showing up two hours early. And then they started showing up five hours early. And then all that continued until my dad waiting for his application process. He drives by the local immigration office on a Sunday morning. And he sees that actually a lot of the data move forward very quickly. And so now his application and many other people's application dates are up for processing. And so he's like what should I do? And he goes around and he sees there's already a line forming outside the door. This is Sunday morning. And so he goes home, calls his brother. He's like, hey, what should I do? There's a line outside the door. My application date is up. And his brother goes, well, you better get in line. And so him and my mom went to the immigration office Sunday, you know, morning, afternoon, and they got in line. And they waited in line for almost 24 hours. And they, they, you know, they slept in line overnight. So people thought they were homeless. You know, they were trying to go up to them to give them. Food, and they have to tell, my parents have to tell them no, you know, we have food, we have a home, we just want to be American citizens. And this is, the whole night they slept like this, my dad would tell us like they almost formed like a little government amongst themselves in the line they had a, a piece of paper where they wrote down the order everybody was in in line, so they didn't have to be like directly in line, they could just kind of congregated in a circle, they had a, a, there was a, a pregnant woman and they let her go home actually, and they said, you go home, And when you come, come back in the morning and we'll save your spot in line. And this is people from all over the world, you know? India, China, Africa, Europe, really, you name it. Really kind of beautiful, like how they, people came together in this moment. But also very sad because people had to be, go through this to get, to be U. S. citizens. Had to wait in line for 24 hours. And so, you know, my, my mom and dad, they wait, they slept in line overnight. They actually, when they first the doors opened the next morning, my dad actually was not, had not, even though he had come at around like 1, 1 p. m. the day before, he was still too late. And so they actually shut the doors down, and they had a lot of people there who were waiting for almost 24 hours who they were not letting in. Someone knew somebody in the local media, and so they called the local media over, local media started filming, you know, like immigration, local immigration office has line of people waiting over 24 hours, not letting anybody in, and the immigration office saw the media filming, they opened the doors back up, they started taking more people, and so my dad was able to have his application processed that day thankfully, and then he you know, eventually he did get his green card, and so and became a U. S. citizen, and, And I think one of the reasons I'm so passionate about this is that he really sacrificed a lot to let, you know, become a U. S. citizen and to make sure that I could have those same rights that all U. S. citizens have in this country. And yet I decided to move just, you know, a few miles away into the city he's in the suburbs still, I'm in the city now. And I move across the river into the city and all of a sudden I lose those rights that he fought so hard for. The right to vote which really all citizens in this country deserve. And so that's one of the, you know, kind of factors driving me in this, in this race. Okay, that's, that's a really powerful story, Ankit, because, You know, there are so many layers to that story, right? So there is this whole backlog that is, that is troubling a lot of you know, immigrants. And then there's also this whole human side of people you know, getting together and, and, you know, making each other comfortable. So I, I, I'm really moved by that aspect. And every time I think of it, even my own personal experience with, with my green card application was kind of similar. Luckily, I did not have to stay there for 24 hours, thanks to internet. So we were able to you know, take an appointment. But even if we had an appointment, we were still expected according to the internet. To be there at least three hours in advance, right? So if the office opens at eight o'clock in the morning, people ask you to be there at five or six in the morning and stand in that queue. Although when I look back at it, I feel it may not really be required because You know, these guys actually come out and ask for who has an appointment at what time and then they let people in. So there's a lot of you know, misconceptions out there about you know, the, the way to go in and apply. But, but there's still a huge major backlog and Ankit, what are your thoughts about this, right? So there's a lot of noise in the media about immigrations and immigrants in, in. In total, but I think there's there are there are two aspects, right? So there's one is the legal immigrants, especially people coming in from India with an H one visa. There's a there's a huge major backlog. There are families that have to wait for over 100 years to actually get that green card. And then maybe another six or seven years to to become, you know, citizens. Not a lot of us are going to be living that long. Yeah, unless science makes that progress, right? So and this also affects The children of these you know, H 1B holders a lot of them, when they, you know, become 21 or 24, they have to leave the country and a lot of them are actually considering Canada for that. So what are your thoughts as a politician on this important subject? Yeah. I mean, it's obviously very personal to me cause my family had to go through this process. I think that immigration is what has made America great historically. Historically, you look at, What we are as a country, we're a country that opens its doors to people who are looking for a better life and you think about American monuments, the Statue of Liberty is the first thing that comes to mind. And you know what it says, like, lift up your lamp for all those who, you know, the suffering and those who are seeking help. And I think we really are shooting ourselves in the foot in what we're doing right now. Like you said people go their whole lives waiting to get a green card. I think it's, it's ridiculous. Just, just, you know, I'll just give a personal example. My dad came to this country Not a lot of money he came with like some money that they borrowed from the my sister's like dowry money And that was pretty much all he had and he was supposed to pay that back and He was able to get an education and start his own business and that business now employs hundreds to thousands of American citizens in this country, right and so Those jobs would not have been able to be created if he was not able to get his green card and citizenship. So those are examples of allowing more immigrants to this country benefits everybody both the immigrants and the people who are already in the U S. And so what we, we really need to revamp our immigration system. It's like, it's totally broken our immigration system. The country caps are way too low, especially for big countries like India and China. Where people have to wait for decades to get H 1, to get green cards where people, a lot of people are getting rejected for H 1B visas. And what? You know, I think that we need to do what we can. We need to massively increase these caps, allow more people into this country to allow for that, that entrepreneurship for that job creation. A lot of these people who are coming into the country are very high skilled, you know, they're They're just they're just like prime to contribute to America, and they're just waiting for their opportunity. And to your point, a lot of what our country saying is no, you can't come here, go to Canada instead and make the jobs there. I don't get it. I don't think it makes any sense at all. I think it's ridiculous. I think we need to really massively increase and overhaul our immigration system. And I think that I mean, people have been talking about it for a long time. I'm hopeful it can happen. One of the things that I want, I like to point out is that DC is a very immigrant heavy city. There are a lot of immigrants in the city. If DC had those two extra senators, that one extra Congress person, I think our senators and Congress people would be huge advocates for overhauling our immigration system and allowing more people in. And so that's one of the many reasons that I think we need voting representation here in DC. Okay. So I get one thing I read on your profile was that you interned for Hillary Clinton. Yeah. How was your experience in interning for her? Yeah. I mean, that, that was, I, I really enjoyed all of my political experiences because I've met people who I never really would have interacted with in a, you know, in other aspects of my life. And so I was in New Hampshire and I was a field intern for Hillary Clinton. So that means that, you know, I was the one who was calling people, cold calling people, and knocking on doors many hours a day, asking people to vote for Hillary. I, I really learned a lot, I would say. And still I'm connected with people to this day, some of my best friends I met, you know, on the Hillary Clinton campaign and some of the people, volunteers who are still in New Hampshire are still supporting me now in this run. And so I, it was really interesting to like, just hear people's different experiences and what, what they were looking for. This was a Democratic primary. So we were, you know, talking to Democrats. So it wasn't, we weren't talking as much to the independent voters. But I, I just think that being able to understand those different perspectives, I was in kind of a small town in New Hampshire and, and understanding what people like that like the life, the life experience of people like that, but then also understanding how it's different and how it's actually very similar to, to many of us and that people have the same hopes and dreams. I would say it was very interesting. And I was able to meet secretary Clinton a few times, which is really a great experience. And and hear her, you know, at town halls and answer questions. And so really, I mean, just like a great experience meeting some of my best friends to this day who now have moved to DC along with me. I will say it was a lot of work. It was definitely hard work. We were, we were literally cold calling people three hours a day every day. And that takes a lot of energy out of you. But I w I mean, I think that if anybody's interested in campaigns, interning in the field operation is almost a must because you really understand what a campaign is about when you're talking to average voters and trying to speak for the campaign on in that way. So how did you get into all this at such a young age? What drove you? yOu know, I've always been interested in, in kind of social justice, social change. I, I think it's a little bit of a stereotype for people my age, like millennials, but the President Obama's 2008 election was really what got me interested in politics. And, and he really inspired me in saying, into believing that, you know, this is something that can make a difference, the political world and that You know, we are, we're the ones who are looking for, right, that we're the ones who are going to make the impact. And so I started following with President Obama's 2008 election, continued just following the news pretty closely, then started get volunteering. My first volunteer opportunity was for the Fairfax congressman, still the congressman in Fairfax to this day, Jerry Connolly. And you know, ended up being very involved in President Obama's 2012 reelection effort when I was in undergrad at the University of Chicago and was able to go to his victory rally in Chicago, which is a great experience. And you know, then interned for the Senator Mark Warner's campaign in Virginia. And all of that kind of, like, made me interested in this political world. I kind of was thinking after undergrad, do I want to go? into campaigns or do I want to do law because law you know, social, social change type law. So I ended up working for a campaign in Florida, the Patrick Murphy Senate campaign in 2016. And then, and then from there I went to law school. I went to Columbia law in New York city for three years. And I decided I wanted to do social change law because I was, you know, wanted to make an impact, make a difference. And really for me, I think it's just, I feel like. To make an impact on people's lives kind of drives meaning. This is the, you know, in, in, in my life. And so that's something that I want to do as a way to try to make the world a better place. And it just something I've been passionate about for a long time now. So this kind of social change work is something I've been passionate about for a while. Like I said, democracy issues were my, my number one. And You know, this year I just decided I guess now last year, because we're down 2024 was when I decided, hey let's, let's, let's actually run for office myself and I can get into that as well. But I thought the person in office in this position right now was not doing such a good job. And so I thought I needed to throw my hat in the ring and offer a different alternative. One take away for our listeners here is that, you know, it doesn't happen all overnight. You have been into it from last good last 15 years. You have been, you know, going through the journey and understanding it all and been through this. So, yeah, that's yeah, I definitely think so. Like, you want to try to understand what you're getting into. But I think I also think that, there's nothing stopping you from starting that path, right? Anybody can, I think anybody can do it. So I think if you're, if you're passionate about it, you should go for it. Cool. Yep. So, you know, being a young politician you know, I think whenever we think about politicians or especially when we were growing up, we were always looking at politicians as you know, people who've, who've kind of hit their prime in terms of age, right? Yeah. But now we see a, a big breed of young politicians coming out and you know, for reasons you know, similar to yours. I, I was wondering, what do you think? Are the most common misconceptions that people have about younger politicians? Are you guys fun or are you always serious? No, I think we're fun. I would, I would hope that people don't think we're always serious. I, I think that you know, sometimes people might think that younger people like don't maybe have a pulse on the community or something like that, which I don't think. Is true because I think one, I think that no one can really have like, you know a pulse on the whole community. Everybody has their own little circles that they're, that they're involved in. But there, there are a lot of especially in cities like, you know, D. C., there are a lot of young people here who have not really been represented, right? Historically, we've had a lot of you know, older politicians in office who, or maybe don't understand what it's like to be a young person trying to rent a house because they've owned their house for 20, 30 years now, who maybe don't understand What it's like to have to you know, rely on public transit on the on the on the metro system on the buses because they have cars. And so I think that there is a lot of value and having that different perspective here. And I think with young people, you just come with a certain amount of energy. That and kind of like not just energy, but a new way of thinking, you know, not not being stuck as much on the old ways of thinking. And so that's what I'm trying to bring forward is that energy that that new way of thinking and that understanding of what it's like to be you know, trying to make it in the city. I am myself a renter, and I think that most people in D. C. Government are not. And so I just want to bring that perspective. I think it's important and it's I think it's important also for people on the national stage to know that, just to have young people in the city represented and see what they can contribute to the national stage. So, Ankit, you are, you know, basically you are an Indian. I mean, Indian from by heart also I can say, so, and I, you know, know that you have been, you keep visiting India quite often, quite often than a lot of other people. So, you know, how do you engage with the Indian community in your area and how do you, you know, contribute or plan to contribute to them? Yeah, so I mean you know, I, growing up, I obviously grew up within the Indian community. And so to this day, a lot of you know, my parents live in the, still in the Virginia suburbs in the, in the Northern Virginia suburbs in Fairfax and I'm really trying to make sure that the Indian community is involved in my campaign, engage. There is a very large Indian community in the DC area. It's one of the biggest, I would say in the country. Other than, you know, maybe you'd say New York area, the kind of Houston area and D. C. area, I think are some of the biggest maybe Seattle area and San Francisco area as well. Those would probably be the top five. And so I think that there is like a very large Indian community in this in this area. I remember when my parents came here They, you know, there was no Indian stores. They had to get there. They had a hard time finding like non or roti or something like that. Now, you know, you have humongous H Marts that, that are like bigger than your average grocery store. And so the community has really risen in, in, in prominence, but not in terms of political power. They're still you know, to this day, there's very few Indian American elected officials in the area. In Washington, D. C., I would actually be the first Indian American elected official above the Advisory Neighborhood Commission level, and Advisory Neighborhood Commission is kind of like a very, a lower level, hyper local elected office, and I would actually be the first I, I, I might be, I believe, be the one of the first I wouldn't be the first, but I'd be one of the first immigrants elected to office in D. C. as well. Thank you. From an immigrant background. And so you know, I want to bring that perspective. I think that when you hear the kind of stories that I just described to you of your parents sleeping in line to get their green card growing up, it kind of gives you a different perspective on politics and on life. And so, I want to bring that perspective forward, and I want to make sure that the Indian community, which is so large in this area, Is represented and I'm definitely engaged with that with that community and having them come out to events and volunteer and things like that to make sure that people understand that there is a large any community in this area that, wants and deserves representation and I hope to provide that to them. I think that's that's excellent Ankit. I think It is it is very important that the Indian community You know comes together and helps you achieve that goal. How is your fundraising for your campaign going and How can people reach out to you and contribute? Yeah, yeah. So the, we just had our big, our, our most recent update in terms of the campaign was we all had to file our 1st fundraising reports. And so you know, I'm, I'm very happy with how we went. We raised a little over 52, 000 in the 1st fundraising quarter, which is actually more than anyone can imagine. Has ever raised for this race over the course of an entire campaign, and we were able to do it in the first, you know, two, three months, which I'm very happy about. And also, you know it's a, it's a, it's a, we did a lot better than our competitors. So I was very happy about that as well. And you know, people, if they're interested, they can always they should check out my website. It's Jane, J A I N for F O R D C dot com. And that, that link has a link to find out more about my campaign, to donate and to volunteer. We always need support, but financial support is always important because, you know, that's how campaigns run for better or worse. And then volunteer support is always extremely important. There's a volunteer button on our website. We are just about to start signature collection to get me on the ballot. It starts on January 12th and we have to get 2000 signatures. And so if anybody is interested and has some time to volunteer in D. C. we're, we're, we're just getting that started. And that, and then you can always send an email from our through our website and we, you know, that that goes to us and we read those emails. And so people should definitely get involved that way. Absolutely, Ankit. We'll add your link in the description of this video. So our listeners and people who watch this video can definitely find that link easily. Thank you. So, Ankit, before we move any further, do you want to share any fun fact that people don't know about you? hMm. Fun fact about me. Well, I mean, one is that a fun fact about me, I'll say is I'm actually a vegetarian, been a vegetarian my whole life. And, and what I like about DC is that city, very easy to get vegetarian food, very a lot of different food options in DC. One fun fact that people should maybe know about this campaign or, or about D. C. politics, I'll say, so that D. C. has recently passed a law allowing non citizens to vote in local elections. So you do not have to be a citizen to vote in D. C. anymore. You cannot vote in D. C. for president, or, unfortunately, you cannot vote for this race or for the shadow representative race, but you can vote for mayor, for city council. For attorney general. And so if you are living in D. C. Thought you couldn't vote. That's no longer true. You now can vote. The board of D. C. Board of elections is going to be posting within the next month. It's going to be putting online, updating its online registration system to allow non citizens to register electronically. You can actually register now by going in person to their office. But that's obviously not feasible for most people. So I would say just keep on checking their website. They're going to be updating it within the next month to allow non citizens to register to vote. And that'll give you the option to register and finally have, you know, have an impact in stuff like your schools and the traffic lights and and things like that, that affect your everyday life. That's a great update. Thank you. Excellent. That's not just a fun fact. It's also a very useful fact. This is this is this is going to be very helpful for a lot of people. I can we'll get into a quick rapid fire. And since you mentioned food, you know, your first rapid fire question is favorite Indian food. Okay, I'm going to be a little bit generic. I do love Shahi paneer. You know, when you're just like growing up, it's just I can't you can't beat it. If I had to say a number two other than paneer, I would probably say Chole Bhature. So yeah, those are my top two. Whenever you visit Atlanta next time, let me know. I'm going to take you to this awesome place for Chole Bhature. Yeah. And, and you'll, you'll, you'll really love it. It's, it's one of these chains from India. NeW Delhi, which is actually opened up over here. What's it called? It's called Nathu Sweets. Okay, cool. And they're in Decatur. And I was there about three weeks ago and it's, it's mind blowing. So you must have the choleba today at Nathu Sweets. And when you plan to come to India, I'll be your host. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Perfect. Talking about cities, right? And we, we heard that you travel a lot. Which is your favorite Indian city? My favorite Indian city? Hmm. So I'll say that I like I'll give you a two part Bangalore. I really loved the multiculturalism of Bangalore and the weather. The weather is very nice in Bangalore. But I got to say the infrastructure in Bangalore is not not the best. And so. I do love Delhi has that you know, the roads are very nice and the Delhi has a lot of great food options and places to go. And so between Delhi and Bangalore, I don't know if I could choose between the two of them, but those are the two favorites that I visited, I would say. That's, that's great. I have fond memories of both cities. I can, I can relate with what you said. Ankit, next question. Favorite Bollywood movie? You know, so I, I fell off a little bit in watching Bollywood movies since I was more in high school and I would go with my parents. So this is going to be like an older one, but I really liked Dil Chahta Hai, classic. That was one of the, I used to watch it. Yeah, yeah. And and your favorite Bollywood actor or actress? It used to be Shah Rukh Khan growing up as a kid. I don't know if I would say that anymore. Remind me the name of the guy in Is it Run Kaur? Who was in or who was that? That is Imran Khan. Imran Khan. That is, that is nephew of Amil Khan. Yeah. Yeah. So it might be, it might be Imran Khan. Now, definitely growing up it was Sha Khan. Excellent. Excellent. That is great. Thank you so much for giving us this time and this opportunity, Ankit. We really loved speaking with you. Any, any last message that you would like to share with our listeners? Yeah, I mean, I guess the last message that I would share is, I mean, D. C. statehood, I think obviously people who live in D. C. understand the importance of it. But I think the importance actually goes beyond just the impact of people who live in D. C. You know, D. C., for people who live in the greater DMV, you know, D. C., Maryland, Virginia area We share a lot of the same problems. You know, transportation is one example, both metro and our roadways. And we all benefit from some of the same solutions. If we had two more senators from D. C. and one more representative from D. C. who were advocating For federal funding or for other federal solutions to some of the problems that we all face as a region. I think it would make a real impact on on our ability to solve these problems. So even if you live in Maryland or Virginia, it's an important cause because it benefits you as well. I think for people who live in big cities, I think this is a really having D. C. as a state, having two senators from Washington, D. C. This would be the only two senators who are representing in completely urban area and really focused on urban problems, big city problems. You often see cities get short shrift, especially in the Senate, which is kind of tilted more towards rural areas. This is an opportunity for, for city issues to really get uplifted. You, if you had two senators from D. C. talking about gun violence, for example, or about public transportation, that would really, I think, change the Shift the calculus in the Senate and really change the conversation and make people think a little bit more about these issues and trying to solve these problems. So I think if you live in a big city as well, it's a, it's a cause that's important to you as well. And I think you want somebody in this position who has the vision for how this position can actually be used effectively and has that experience and to actually Get dc statehood across the finish line. So I mentioned I worked at the sierra club. I currently work at fair vote I've done legislative advocacy in both those roles. I want to take that legislative experience I have and, and bring it to this role and have somebody who's very strategic and has a plan to actually make D. C. statehood happen and is willing to work collaboratively, collaboratively with, with the entire, you know, stated community to make sure that we are working together and rolling in the same direction. And so that's what I hope to bring that strategic ability, that vision and that experience. To actually make DC statehood happen. And so hope you are interested in the campaign. You can support it and check out my website if you are. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you so much. And then it was, yeah, exactly. Great. Great to talk to you all. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. Bye guys. Bye.