outer voice - outer voice - outer voice - outer voice
[JAM] For me, it is to create platforms and spaces that empower others. I think, culturally speaking, our focus is on the South Asian community. We have a personal interest in wanting to represent an even more granular South Indian community, the Mallu community, the Mallu Christian community. We come from a minority of a minority, and I think that affects a lot of how we see the world and see this broader South Asian community. But also, a lot of our work, even beyond this current company that we're building, has been consistently about empowerment. A lot of the work that we did on our campuses in past community service work and other work we did together has always been about a platform of serving. I think that comes a lot from our family. I think about a grandfather of mine I never met. He passed the year before I was born, but I'm named after him, and he was a pastor, and he was known for just incredible, almost silly generosity. Like, “I don't have it in my pocket, and I'm still giving it to you.” And I think we've always carried that duty. I think duty can often be inspired by our past and the generations above us. There's a real feeling that we must serve and create opportunities for others who might not have them.
DUTY
[Philly] I would point to our parents. I love the theme of duty because we always described them as both living very dutiful lives. Because of the values they instilled in us, we knew that we always wanted to help people, be kind to people, and use our voices to empower. I always say that if we get to the end of our lives and what we have done, even if it's a success in our lifetime, we get artist success, our business does well, if it doesn't live on past us, I would have seen it as a failure. I think what we're doing is so much for future generations as well. So we don't have to have the experience of growing up in an all-white community but then also going home to TV and not seeing anyone that looks like us. It's so people know that they have endless opportunities of what they can be because they're seeing it in the world. Honestly, I always take it one further and say we're trying to change our representation in America's pop culture, and I think we're trying to make Brown cool. I think our community is not thought of as a cool culture, whatever that means. But that's what we're trying to do. We want to create the next artist that everyone admires. We want to create the next movie star that has the main role that everyone wants to be like and is dressing up like for Halloween. We want to put our culture in broader entertainment and tell these stories for the next generation so that they can grow up, and it's not unique. They don't have to feel alone, they can see our color on the screen, and they know that that's an option for them if they want it.
132 | THE INDIAN STANDARD
