Hey, all you Shopzters viewers!
Shopzters turns SIX today and we cannot be more excited to share this piece of news with our beloved viewers and followers! The company has seen tremendous growth the past few years and it wouldn't have been possible without the team behind it with careful mentorship by our founders. And so to mark the occasion, we planned an extremely special shoot with our core team to introduce the faces behind all the work and content! As a team we are extremely dynamic, each one of us donning many hats to run the show. So, presenting an extremely comical blog that you'll have a lot of fun reading, explaining all our quirks and traits with a satirical twist!
Prasitha Sridhar AKA Prasi-
Co-Founder - Shopzters
1. SOS for Prasi translates to hunger pangs and cravings. Hence, Swiggy is the number Prasi has on speed dial. Yeah, not her immediate family even, but Swiggy’s. You’ll find a big gang of Swiggy delivery boys right outside our office. Um, yeah. They better give us some Gold membership or something.
2. Are you a friend of Prasi’s but haven’t talked to her in the longest time? Don’t you worry child. Prasi loves to share all her daily life experiences with her circle of friends on FB. So, just scroll through her FB page for all the latest updates!
3. She’s a travel junkie, giving Kareena Kapoor a run for her money with all the places she has seen and explored. She knows every country she has visited inside-out. Better than the native guides themselves! So want to plan your next holiday? You know who to call!
4. And if you were to ever call Prasi, don’t be surprised with all the background noise. No, it isn’t a playschool. It’s just both her daughters bringing the roof down! And if you’re lucky, her toddler might just grab the phone and babble to you. BUT, only if you’re lucky enough.
5. Prasi is definitely a fine example of how a working woman balances family life with two adorable daughters and a professional life with unhindered ambition and determination. Prasi, right here is a true blue modern day multi-tasker!
Jayashree Sridhar-
Co-Founder - Shopzters
1. Shopzters’ Rajamaatha! A mother figure to all of us, imparting words of wisdom from time to time and always reminding us of our true goal and aim. She is the voice of reason and reiterates how important it is to constantly innovate and evolve with the changing times!
2. For years, scientists around the world have been trying to find out what fuel is it that she runs on as she makes the rest of us feel slow and old compared to the speed with which she operates! She proves that age is no bar and no matter how big or small your dream is, age shouldn’t ever be deterrent for you to go out and achieve it!
3. Jayashree ma’am is the living embodiment of the Oxford dictionary. She should have rightfully been born in Cambridge, or mingling with Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and the likes!
4. She is yet again, an amazing multi-tasker, perfectly balancing family life and professional life. She is a doting daughter, wife, mother and grandmother slipping into the shoes of every role with ease and panache.
5. Just a quick chat with ma’am can leave you inspired and determined. Ma’am’s myriad experiences often leave us dumbstruck by all the different hats she has donned over the years!
Sucharithra Surendrababu aka Suchi-
Vendor Manager
1. Coffee is her middle name. I am pretty sure she has more caffeine running in her veins than blood. If that searing hot cup of coffee has not found a place on her table, at 10.30am, then oops. You're in for her rudrathandavam. Just crawl under a table and pray for the Coffee-tea wala to come asap! The heavens might just fall.
2. Suchi is one person who frequents temples more than her home, even. She is extremely devout and you wouldn't miss her table at the office with all the photos of Sai Baba on it. Their family expenditure on food is actually halved because of Suchi, thanks to her fasting almost 28 days out of 30!
3. Any area outside of Adyar is a whole other country for her and she will make the travel seem as difficult and as complicated as finding an escape route out of North Korea!
4. Suchi always manages to have a personal connection with the vendors she meets. Somehow, the emotional side to her always aids in bringing that bond about. And thanks to the immense ownership she takes of her work, there are more 5-star reviews of Suchi being a Vendor manager than food reviews on Zomato.
Preethi Srinath aka Preethz-
Website Manager
1. This woman is a living-breathing encyclopedia for anything that's synonymous with restaurants and food. You name any restaurant, she has been there. And her services extend to other cities as well. Contact her for further information. You're welcome!
2. You've seen the Harpic ad I am sure? Yeah, they assure you 99% of the germs are killed, right? And that's something all of us normal beings can make peace with. This damsel right here is that germophobe who will freak out and cringe even if that ONE % remains uncleaned. OCD.
3. Preethi is extremely hard to please. She is a hard taskmaster and takes complete ownership of her work and unless she is satisfied with the quality of photos going up on the website, she will reject you. Brutally.
4. Also, Preethi's wedding is going to be held soon! Everything is set and planned by the Shopzters team here! Venue, decor, photography, catering, outfits, bridesmaids, groomsmen. Everything....except um, except for the groom. But I am sure all the stars are aligning for that special day and though she claims she has no conditions whatsoever if at all you spot a boy obsessively washing his hands 20 times a day, carrying 3 hand-sanitizers in his bag, give us a ring yeah?
Shobana Sridhar AKA Shobz-
Wedding Consultant/ Content Creator + Writer
Mind you, since I am the writer of this article, the inputs for whatever follows are from the team. Here goes their version of me-
1. So you know those celebrity ‘What’s in your handbag’ videos right? If you were to do one on Shobana, you’d find all kind of inhalers, anti-histamines, cold tablets, nasal sprays, not just in Allopathy but Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Ayurveda, Herbal, Chinese, Unani, Siddha, etc. This specimen has a perennial cold, irrespective of whether its summer or winter.
2. The maid for Shobana, is like the Poochaandi. So when she arrives with her broom, that’s it. She would have run off and swam her way to Alaska. That is how allergic she is to dust. But of course by the time she reaches Alaska, she would have caught a cold again. Oops.
3. Even though she spent half her life away from India, her roots run deep and is a Tamil ponnu at heart. But the NRI symptoms are bound to show, so when she ‘attempts’ to sing Tamil songs, honestly the lyrics will sound like Beyonce trying to belt out ‘Inji Idupazhaga’!
4. Shobana is a Grammar Nazi. So when grammatical or spelling errors of any kind are made, she will turn into The Hulk. But when she begins to write, she weaves the entire experience together and brings it to life with her words!
5. Shobana has always managed to bond extremely well with every client she talks with. We usually hear tales of clients who turn friends and family but Shobana here got to be a bridesmaid even, for one of her clients! Her clients’ testimonials run longer than the River Nile!
Please note all of the above points have been exaggerated for comic relief. We are all fairly normal human beings, I assure you.
As an all-women team, we absolutely love shopping and sometimes don’t realise the hours ticking by while we add various items into our shopping carts online. A guilty pleasure, but hey thank god Prasi indulges in it just as much as us!
We are die-hard Vegetarian foodies bonding over momos, paneer butter masala and sometimes Vada pav!
It’s been quite a remarkable journey and we are super happy to be sharing this little sneak peek into what lies beyond the screen to you :)
Oye, you folks. No eye-putting. Not underestimating the power of the "Pooshnika". But still :)
This team shoot was one of the most memorable things we have done as a team and we can't thank our sweetest vendors enough for making this happen!
The Collaborators for the shoot are,
Photography- @creative-wedding-photography#
Sarees- @ananthra-by-shopzters#
Blouses- @didi-designer-studio#
Jewellery- @the-amethyst-store#
Makeup- @reena-makeup-artiste#
Hair- @gopinath-yashica#
Location- Miththam
Thanks to them, we could make this idea come to life!