#285 South Asian Weddings Became A Status Show

We break down why South Asian weddings can feel like pure joy and pure pressure at the same time, from the marriage market to the modern wedding economy. We look at how status, community expectations, and social media push celebrations bigger, pricier, and harder to navigate. 

• Pressure to marry as a social obligation tied to family status 
• Mental health strain from constant questions and expectations 
• Conspicuous consumption and why weddings become public status displays 
• Diaspora “new money” dynamics and the urge to one up 
• Event inflation from blended South Asian and Western traditions 
• Debt, guest-list reciprocity, and weddings as social and economic capital 
• Performance, authenticity, and the upside of supporting local vendors 
• Wedding price markups and the accessibility gap they create 


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Transcript

Why Weddings Take Over Life

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hey everyone, it's Rabio. I get to talk to you this week, today, about South Asian weddings and the craze and the business and all of that that comes with South Asian wedding like landscape, I guess. South Asian weddings take up so much time. How many of you have been like, how do people go on vacation at all when all of your time off is spent at weddings? Like they're seven days long, five days long. You have to travel, you have to go places, and at the end of the day, you only have so many days off, and you're spending them at your Thai the Munda's wedding in Surrey. And fun fact, I will be doing that this weekend. So this is this is just the way it goes. And but there's so much fun. And honestly, I have so much, like, so many good memories from weddings that I grew up going to that like I understand the wedding obsession in a the wedding obsession. But before we get to the weddings themselves, I want to talk about the marriage

Marriage Pressure And Social Obligation

SPEAKER_00 1:18

market process. So I did, I did actually give us a little bit of a sneak pick peek sneak pick sneak peek on this when I did the the last time I talked about this. I think it was on uh April 23rd when I did my Sick Heritage Month um show. I did a little primer on South Asian weddings and I talked about South Asian marriages and the marriage market. And you know what? I'm gonna just give us a quick recap of that and what I talked about so I can get straight into what I want to talk about today because it is like the zeitgeist of South Asian wedding community, culture, business, whatever, whatever it is, has fundamentally changed in the last 30 years from what it once was, and culturally it is quite distinct. But even within that, there is this huge, huge thing. You ever heard the term conspicuous consumption? I'm gonna get into that, but first, I'm gonna talk about the pressure and the obligation to marry. And I'm gonna be completely honest, I'm not the mental health person on this radio station. Please listen to Gruji, please listen to Sogan's episodes, please give them a like, give them a follow on Instagram because they are the people that know more about like mental health stuff. But I am gonna be referencing Preina Menon, who is a licensed social worker in New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey in the US, and she's written about navigating parents' pressure for marriage in South Asian communities. I would say check out her website. It is like a good resource to you know know more about this. And she provides therapy specifically about South Asian wedding pressures. Just like the fact that that exists is a is a big deal, right? Like that really shows how stressful, how stressful the pressure and obligation to get married really is. And like many South Asian communities, marriage is not seen as a personal choice, it's a social obligation. So there's a study done that Prina references by Kramer and Kilnay in 2022, uh, came out in 2006, that women in South Asian societies face immense pressure to marry by the age of 25, while men often feel similar pressures by their early 30s. And I can contest to this from personal experience, as I have had cousins getting married since I turned 20, like first cousins that were getting married every year almost. And every year I always held, you know, my my gaze straight down and tried not to react when people looked at me and said, Oh, Rabia, when's your turn? Oh my goodness. That like being on the other, like the receiving end of that really like makes your blood boil. You're like, okay, come on. Am I am I anything more than a party? Like, why are you so obsessed with my marriage? I always think about there's this one, there's this one reel. I don't know if you've seen it on Instagram. She's like, this girl's just like losing it. And I I really like I'll tag her on Instagram. She says, like, via grala, via grala, via grala, and she's like, get in all, via karala. Like, she's full on crashing out over the pressure to get married. And she's like, What? Is your boy for sale? And so she says something like that, where and I so resonate with that. And I feel like so many brown girls, especially resonate with that, and men too, because that pressure is is hard. And it's like, it's like every conversation you have, they talk about get married, get married, get married. And you're like, Can I just live? And this the thing is, the ramifications of this pressure, it can be profound. And so there's another research study that Prinna here cites by Meta and McDonald that says research shows that nearly 64% of South Asian adults feel overwhelmed by expectations placed on them regarding marriage, leading to anxiety and depression. So, this like well-meaning pressure that parents will put on their kids to get married and to live this life. And you know, it is a social obligation, you know, that even for parents, it's a social obligation. Because for a lot of parents, it is actually the pressure that they feel. Their success as a parent is measured by did your kid go to school? Did your kid get married? There, your child's marital status and your child's ability to stay married highly determines your social status in South Asian society. And I do think this is changing, and I do think it should say, should be changing because marriage is not for everyone and that should be okay. Staying married is not for everyone, and that should be okay. I, I, you know, Grijet told me I shouldn't should people because there's a saying that uh therapists will say to each other, um, don't should yourself. You know, you know what that sounds like, right? Don't do that. But this is one of those things that I do believe would make individuals' lives less anxious, less sad if they were not being pressured into it. And maybe that pressure can like maybe even create unhealthy relationship dynamics because you're staying or rushing into a relationship that don't necessarily align with your values or goals to meet societal or familial expectations. And that's really stressful. Like that can, you know, that can increase your unhappiness in a marriage, increase rates of divorce, which, you know, as I said, should be okay, but it's also really difficult for someone to go through those things. So Khan et al. Prina also, you know, cites this here, indicates that approximately 33% of South Asian marriages end in divorce within the first five years, often due to unmet expectations and compatibility issues. So this trend is just shows how there is maybe a shift in how maybe there needs to be a shift in how marriage is perceived and approached within our communities. And and Prana, you know, very wonderfully says this. So again, this is that's my piece on like what is the societal kind of side of like getting married and the the societal pressures that not only a bride and groom face, but the parents, grandparents, and uncles and aunts face because their personal success is tied to you. It is not simply if they can stay married, if they can do well in their businesses, if they can do well in their careers or you know in their lives that matters. It is how good you do. And that pressure is a lot.

Conspicuous Consumption Explained

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Let's finally get into conspicuous consumption because this is a topic that has fascinated me. So I did I did talk a little bit about conspicuous consumption last time, and you know, I've given a little bit of a sneak peek into what it looks like. But first I'll define it and then I'll show us how it shows up in the South Asian wedding culture. And while I'm defining it, you'll you'll know exactly, exactly where I'm gonna go with this because you're brilliant and I know it. So let's let's let let's put our glasses on, you know, let's take our hats off and get our notebooks cracked open and our pencils ready because we are going to sociology and economics class, alright? So the term conspicuous consumption describes the consumer practice of buying and using goods of a higher quality price or in greater quantity than practical for the express purpose of public display, of economic power. So there is this sorry, that that accent was me being Thorstein Veblen, who is actually um a sociologist who coined the term conspicuous consumption. So he's he's describing when people spend money on buying luxury things for the express purpose of public display, which, you know, this public display of economic power is is connected to maintaining or attaining a given social status, right? So there is this public aspect that is very important. So, like I said just now, and you know, right now, if you were listening right before this, I was talking about how weddings aren't just about two people marrying each other, it's about two cultures getting together. And that when parents are feeling um the pressure from society to marry off their child, to make sure that their child is settled, that that is a reflection of them. And in that same way, weddings are a reflection of that. The wedding is that conspicuous consumption that can help them attain or maintain a given social status that can may help make their lives and maybe even your life a lot easier when you have these, you know, when you follow these rules of society. Because when you're not following them, you know, you know, there is a little bit of friction you have to deal with, which is quite tough when you are in a society that is very like dependent on each other's and each like your how you are perceived by someone is quite important to you. Whereas, um, you know, I'm putting this in a very simple term, there's more to this, but whereas in like the Western context, there is a a bigger, I guess, understanding or gap of like, I understand why someone would have a small wedding. Like, that is the Western consumption of this, right? In the individualistic society. But in a more like community-based society, it's like you want to bring everyone in and you want to call everyone in. You can have that community and you can have that, you know, big wedding, but now with the added um conspicuous consumption addition to this, that big wedding ends up not being a community event where everyone is helping you put it on. It's become, you know, not this like um kind of more organic what weddings I've been told were back in the day, 30, 40 years ago. Uh they've now turned into a how do I one up the next, the last person that got married in my wedding, right? So this is this is actually not just a not something that just happened

Diaspora Wealth And Wedding One Upmanship

SPEAKER_00 11:20

overnight, it has happened over generations. So the same economist, sociologist Thorstein Veblen identified and described terms like nouveau rich, so the new rich, a social class that had emerged at the time, so like in 1899, early 1900s, uh, through new capital accumulation during the second industrial revolution. So think 1860 to 1914, like before World War I, there was this like new class of new money, quote unquote new people, new money rich, you know, that had um had to kind of make themselves look like they are fitting in with the upper class, with like with buying certain things that made them feel like they could fit in. So it was by it was like people of upper class who applied their great wealth as a way of manifesting their social power and prestige, whether that wealth was real or perceived. And I think that's a key point here because we see this happening in the South Asian wedding culture too. There is a new class that has emerged of the first generation of many families, of many families that have had the opportunity to migrate, and I might say rather privileged families have migrated because migrating is expensive. Um, it takes a lot of risk. There is um, you know, a certain amount of privilege, depending on how you migrate. Of course, there's like refugees and other things we can get into, but the South Asian migration has been largely for economic reasons, and that those economic reasons to get like leave poverty and um you know uncertainty in in South Asia to coming to Western countries to like, you know, set up generational wealth or you know, finally be able to have more than as my musty would say, hand-to-mouth, like living, like having like having a little bit more to give. There is a quote unquote nouveau re-generation social class that has emerged in the South Asian community that is now engaging in conspicuous consumption in a way that is, I would say, tenfold than what you probably saw in the 19th century when people were making money off of the the railway or whatever, right? Like there is this new this new class of moneyed individuals that want to spend it in a way and they wanna you we want to sorry, pardon me, uh they want to like practice their your our traditions, we want to practice our traditions, and there is still like there's this new money that's coming, and you're like, okay, well, I have to do it in like you know, I have to pay more, I have to like make it flashier, make it bigger. Like there's these, these two things, all of these things kind of come together to kind of create what South Asian wedding communities culture has turned into now. South Asian weddings, South Asian marriages, first of all, are not seen as two people marrying each other. It's not as a personal obligation, it is a societal obligation. And a part of that, that marriage being seen as a societal obligation is ensuring that the celebration of that marriage, the start of that marriage, the wedding, becomes this societal showcase. And at that societal showcase, we see conspicuous consumption, which I just dived into, but essentially conspicuous consumption. I've been saying that too much, sorry. But it it just means when you make uh you buy something that's kind of unreasonably uh it's like greater than practical to, you know, the price of this thing is greater than practical, but you'll buy it because the public display of it and the public display of you having it is can give you, you know, some, it can show off some of your economic power and it can help you either attain or maintain a given social status. We see this a lot on Instagram with like flexing of cars, bags, shoes, etc. It is a part of being in a society, right? Like you wanna, you wanna let people know that you're with it, you know? You want to let people know, like, hey, I've worked hard or hey, I've attained this, I've done this, this is a part of that society. But when we when we meet this concept with South Asian society and we see how South Asian societies are very um, you know, we work in a way that's very collaborative often. We work together in a lot, a lot of ways. Um, this is an oversimplification. We we sometimes see phenomons like conspicuous consumption go 10x, like they go way more than we would normally, normally would have like assumed something could happen, like a luxury wedding. So, and I say the the community collaborative piece because traditionally, as I've been told by my grandmother, as I've seen in movies, as I've seen, you know, um, I was actually like thinking about the Arendther Gill films like Ungrage and other ones where that you see weddings happening, and they are an event that comes together. They're an event that comes together through several families, several people in your community coming together and helping you celebrate, helping you mark a very important day in your child's life. And part of that doesn't mean that you are spending a lot of money, but it does mean you are spending a lot of time together, you are making the food, you are, you know, maybe stitching the bride's dress, you're making the embroidery, you are, you know, putting together her trousseau. There's all of these little steps that happen. But previously, before, you know, consumption culture became what it is now for the everyday person, it was more of this collective practice. And I'm not saying that this collective practice definitely still exists, but the adding like individualist, individualist society and um, you know, the capitalist uh flashy society that we are in now where we can buy a lot of these flashy things to signify our social status. We can have that wedding in Italy. We can, we can, and we can have that wedding in Italy and tell everyone we have that wedding in Italy because we post it on Instagram. And I'm I'm not hating on a wedding in Italy. If you are getting married in Italy, invite me. I will go. I went last year and I'll do it again because like it's fun and I love it. But this is just me unpacking these things, right? Like, I'm not hating, I'm just unpacking. I'm just like, how does this even start? How does it where does this where is this going for our society? What does it mean? And part of that like consuming things becomes overwhelming. There's a lot of families that are going into debt. A lot of people have put their houses up um, you know, on a line of credit or like are are, you know, to fund their children's weddings. And this societal pressure is like, again, it's it's doubled down on especially parents, especially people that are getting married, that are trying to live up to their parents' expectations. Is well, you know, it's normal to have 800 people receptions, normal to have 400 people sungetz, and you wanna, you wanna, you wanna invite people that have invited you. So that's important too. You live in a society, you wanna, you wanna give back what you've been given, right? Like, so there's all of these things that kind of converge that that create the wedding wedding industry that we see now. And we see

How Traditions Turn Into 14 Events

SPEAKER_00 18:35

this in even the pre-wedding events or the wedding events that we see in South Asian weddings. So let's say, let's say we have the traditional events, right? Like, let's say there's traditional events that happen at weddings. So for a Punjabi sick wedding, that would be the Mendi, the Mayam, the Judah, the Anand Garj, the reception, and then there's like a next day lunch. I forgot what it's called, but that's usually what it is. And before that, some people would have a roqka, but now we have a roka or taka, is which is also known as uh as that is we also have an engagement. We have an engagement party, but we have a proposal, we have a bridal shower, we have a bachelorette, we have a wedding registry, and we have shuggin. Like there's all of these converging traditions. And I think, you know, a part of it is really fun, a part of it is really great because as a person, you're like, why don't I just have it all? Why don't I just have it all? But what this ends up being is 13, 14 events for one person's wedding that is incredibly expensive. And and you know, I say we live in a capitalist society, not as uh as like, you know, as just a point, but it is like when we live in capitalism, we have to think about how much things cost and how much things cost per person. How efficient are we being? These are incredibly inefficient weddings. And this is this is interesting, right? So this is where that conspicuous consumption comes back. We are being inefficient, we are being, you know, we're being collectivist, we are being uh, like you know, we're inviting community, we're making community, we're having all these great events, but at what cost? We just talked about converging traditions of how our South Asian traditions have met with the Western wedding traditions, and we've come up with many, many events. So we have, you know, we start with our engagement, roka, taka, bridal shower, bachelorette, mendy, mayam, bakra party. What is a bakrah party? First of all, someone explain to me when this started, who in Surrey decided to have a bakra party. I love a party. When did this become a thing? I don't understand them. Please tell me. But Ajura, then you have your, you know, uh, your wedding, you have your doli, you have your reception, you have your next day lunch, and then you have brunch, and then you have, you know, thalana dyamka. There's all of these things happening. And again, I love weddings. I live for them. But this is a lot. This is very, very a lot. How do we how do we deal with this? But how do we do a how do we like look at this in a way that like is is understanding of why? Why do people spend a many, many years saving for this big day? Why do people put their houses up on, you know, their put their houses up, you know, to pay for weddings? Why do people go into an insane amount

Debt, Guest Lists, And Social Capital

SPEAKER_00 21:20

of debt to pay for weddings? How how does this happen? So I think a lot of us, you know, have an idea of this. One of those things is social exclusion or social rejection. So when we talk about social exclusion, there is an idea of being ignored and being rejected. So each social exclusion results in different outcomes. So being ignored can sometimes mean to conspicuous consumption, can sometimes lead to conspicuous consumption behavior. Whereas being rejected can sometimes lead to charitable behavior preference. So this charitable behavior preference is like you will be. More likely to um donate to charity or have like start a nonprofit, etc., if you are being rejected. These each outcome has been studied by Lee and Schrum in 2012 as independent of each other. Another kind of layer to this is conspicuous consumption plays a key role in relationships. So there's this has been explored in the aspect of like buying luxury brand, um specifically bags, handbags. So authors uh Wang and Griskevicious 2014 concluded from five different experimental studies that women use conspicuous consumption as a signaling system. And they will, we, we women, I am women, I'm not gonna say they am we, I am one of these girls, will buy nice bags, nice shoes as a way to ward off any threat to their romantic relationship, which is interesting, right? And what is at the root of this is not wanting to be rejected and not wanting to be ignored, but also it is almost being anticipating. It's this anticipatory. I don't want to be ignored, I don't want to be rejected, I want to be accepted, that is leading to this charitable or you know, conspicuous consumption behavior. So these this is an interesting kind of like behavioral psychology world, and this is all coming from um all of this work that I'm taking is from Rishi Bharvaj's paper. I mean, actually, uh from the UBC, his PhD kind of thesis of the performance and conspicuous consumption in emerging markets, a case study of Punjabijet community weddings. So actually, sorry, correction, Master of Arts thesis, not a PhD thesis, but that that is what that is what I'm taking this from is his study on South Asian weddings. So the this anticipation of like, you know, being like, I don't want to be rejected, I don't want to be, I want to be accepted is is fair. It makes sense. No one wants to be rejected. I want all of my relationships to be smooth, fluid, I want it to work, I want to be accepted, I want to have friends, I want people to think well of me. And a part of that, you know, a part of like anticipating this, like maybe people won't talk to me if I don't spend money or if I don't have this big wedding, you have this big wedding. You have this so that you can continue to have relationships with people so your business can work. You're, you know, if you like, let's say um you have your car break down, your friend will help you fix your car because, you know, oh, they invited me to their wedding, oh, like we're boys like that. Like that's kind of the mentality that this a lot of this can come from. And this, like, capital, this like, um, you know, this capital you're spending on on this wedding, it it can come back to you as like, because you're gaining the social capital, it can come back to you as capital generally. You know, a wedding can be seen as like a networking event for your family where you're inviting people and who is invited and who is not invited also very clearly shows what who's your inner circle and who is not. What is the like, and there is a level of prestige and recognition people feel when they are invited to a certain person's wedding and when they are not? So when it comes to individual consumption and like conspicuous consumption, an individual displays objects in societies that you know intent they enhance their symbolic capital, but it can also enhance your economic capital. So, what what do y'all think about that? What do y'all think about how weddings are working and how the sociological and economic impacts of these can kind of like can kind of become its own business? I'm gonna tell you one of the positives of South Asian weddings being so big is I get invited and I get to eat the food and I get to dance. So me, me, me, you know. That's what that's how I feel sometimes. I'm like, you know what? Uh it's it'll be fun. I'll I'll enjoy it. But even for a person that is attending a wedding, it can be a little bit stressful because you're like, what do I wear? Who's gonna be there? What is it gonna be like? There is, there are some positives here, but I'm gonna say there are positives I'm gonna talk about, but this doesn't take away from the real stress that this wedding industry and this wedding culture has put on people that has been like undue stress. You know, like that stress is definitely something I think we should work on unpacking and seeing what it means to mend, meld, you know, create this tapestry of diasporic South Asian experiences that isn't overwhelming and only tied to this performance of ourselves, this performance of being so happy, or this performance of being, you know, wanting to get married even if you don't, this performance of like, you know, wanting to have this big wedding, even if you don't really

Performance, Joy, And Community Economy

SPEAKER_00 26:45

want it because your parents want it. We do all of these performances to achieve social harmony in our relationships, in in our friendships, in in so many of these ships we have, right? So there's this performance we put on is is integral to us fulfilling the objectives we have of making friends, of having a business, of running a nonprofit, or doing, doing the various tasks you do in in a life, right? So you want to avoid situations that discredit this this idea of yourself and this like this um projection of that you have of yourself. And you don't want to be, you don't want to feel ashamed in the presence of others, right? Like, and and to do that, we do all of these, this impression management, which is what some people call everyday theatrics, right? So there's a lot of performance, there's a lot of being, doing, showing, and explaining. So like even performances at weddings are pardon me, are just a small part of how we have this like like you know, level of like what is cool, what is nice, what is like there is this like real clear kind of line we can draw from like how performative weddings are to the dance performances, skits, and other things that we perform at weddings. Even though those are often put put together with so much love and intention, it is still one of those actions where you are, you know, uh engaging with an audience in a certain way. And I do believe that these things are authentic and fun and can be great. And we, if we have the means for them and if we have the time and space and we really are valuing these things, they can be great. But when it becomes a source of great stress, that's when it's a problem, right? But I always think about my brain always goes to like Judith Butler, Jedger Performance, and all of that. So if you, you know, if you're familiar with that, you know what I mean when I say that like everything is a performance, like life is a performance. And so it's not, it's not bad. It's not bad that we're performing, you know, being uh super grandiose for a day for your wedding. I don't think it's a bad thing. And on top of that, I do believe you are helping out your local economy in many ways. Like I always think about how so many people are now like makeup artists, and I do and like makeup artists, Mendy artists, there's DJs, there's there's decor, there's all of these industries and this industry, and then industries within that industry that have been able to support themselves within the South Asian community. And it's been, you know, like people supporting other people. Like I want to support like my local brown girl that does makeup because I'm like, hey, good for you. You're doing something for you. I wanna, I wanna give my coin to you and and it and receive your service because this is so exciting to me. And you know, you have these like super niche markets that are coming up even within this, like so like like content creation or really specific, like you know, bug tying is like you know, tying a turban is a really specific one. So all of these things create they create um opportunity for people, which is really exciting. But on top of that, we have the wedding price tag that so this happens even more, actually. I would say in the Western wedding economy of things is that Western weddings uh are just like the oh my goodness, I'm losing it, but the like the way people spend money is way more. So if you're buying a dress and it's a white dress, it'll be like $500. But if you say it's a white wedding dress, it'll be like $800 or even $1,000, it'll double the price. The same thing is happening for like makeup artists and Mendy artists, and it is like, you know, I I'm not discrediting their work. This is not what I'm doing. But sometimes there are prices that are really, really high that make you question that like, is this service really that much? Or is it just that they know that the South Asian wedding world wants to pay more for these? Like they they know that these budgets are through the roof and that they

Wedding Pricing And Accessibility Questions

SPEAKER_00 30:45

can charge as much, so they do. And you know, we live in this capitalistic society, so that's allowed. That happens. But there's also a lot of people that complain about these things, and it becomes this like hot topic of like, you know, if you're a really popular makeup artist, maybe you'll charge more per session so you can work less and make more, which is you know up to you. But then there's also this like idea of like accessibility. Like, if someone wants to, you know, go to an event, you don't feel like you're done up enough. If you're not like a certain level, you don't have this makeup artist, you don't have this videographer, you don't have this, you know, there's like these these feelings that come up for everyone. All of these feelings, all I'm saying is there are a lot of positives. It doesn't sound like it right now, but there's a lot of positives to these weddings being so big and so fun. And like I said, I love attending weddings, and I will be doing that this weekend. So I'm really looking forward to that. And maybe I'll unpack this wedding because I'm more a Surrey, and you know Surrey weddings are another level. So let me know if you want to hear more about the Surrey wedding I go to. Right today I got to give you a little bit of a sociological and economic look at South Asian weddings in this in the diasporic context and what did what do they look like. So we went through a lot of you know what the traditions are, how they've looked at. I didn't really go deep into any of those traditions because I want to keep this series going because there is so much to unpack here. And as you know, it is just the start of wedding season. How many weddings are you going to this season? I my count is at five, which is a lot. That's five weeks, y'all. I don't think I'll be going to every single event because how do you do that? How does one survive? But that is that is the reality of being a brown person that has friends that are deciding to get married and cousins and people in their life. And here's the thing is now I have to think, like, okay, when I get married, I have to invite all these people too. So, how when do you start like making this decision of like, oh, actually, I'm not gonna go to this event because this means I have to invite them and I don't really know this person. Is this something that you've ever done? Is this something that you like really think about? Because like I am so interested in how people like go through this thought process. They're like, ah, nah, not going to this party. Can't can't can't invite you to that wedding. Like, this is

Wedding Season Reality And Listener DMs

SPEAKER_00 32:58

oh man. This, the, the, the conversation we can have about weddings can go on for a very long time. I am so incredibly grateful for spending this time with you, listening to some South Asian wedding music, and you know, unpacking the background of what South Asian weddings look like from a sociological impact and you know angle. I want to know what you want to hear about from me, Ravia, at 97.9 FM. And when I'm talking about South Asian weddings, what traditions are you curious about? What do you want to learn about? I want to know. These are, you know, I'm coming up with some summer ideas. Maybe I should like interview some South Asian vendors. Like, would that be interesting? If you have anyone that is interested, or if you are a South Asian wedding in vendor yourself, maybe we can chat. Let me know. Give me a shout at DJ Rara Ravia on Instagram and send us a DM at the Universal Radio on Instagram and give us a follow there as well. I am so grateful, so incredibly grateful that I get to be on the airwaves and chat with you and really give you this like little research paper that I, you know, come up with in my head because so many things that I want to unpack, I just like see something and I'm like, oh, let's unpack that, you know? That's something that I always think about. So give me, give me some more of what you want because you know I love yapping and I won't stop. And I feel like I'm losing my voice. This is this is where we're at. I really gotta be more careful with my voice here. I'm gonna leave you off. Enjoy your Thursday night. Have a great weekend. I'll see you next Thursday. Or I'll you'll hear me next Thursday.