Author: sreeyal

Happy Mother’s Day

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A mother/amma is the one who has warmth and cares for anyone who needs it; needless to say, we all do, don’t we? One need not deliver an offspring to be called a Mother. Not everyone who does can be a caring mother. To all those wonderful beings who nurture anyone in need with care and love – Happy Mother’s Day!

It will take me another forty years to describe my mum, Sarada, her warmth, and nurture. Born in an affluent family, being raised with utmost love, she molded herself to the needs of the family she is married into. My dad hailed from a lower middle class and always was quenched in his thirst for knowledge, but he had the responsibilities of his siblings-older and younger. At a very young age of 21, he joined as a lecturer and continued his quest to learn deeper and more by doing Ph.D. But alongside, my mum was the one who had a lot of compromises and sacrifices to make to let everything run smoothly.

Over time, with my dad, Dr. Ayalasomayajula Gopalarao garu, becoming a well-respected and busier literary personality, she resigned from her job as a teacher at a school where my sister and I studied, and continued her studies online and earned her master’s degree. But, none of us had to do any compromises that may have had her duties lessened. My mum, who never cooked until she got married, believed the same in raising us. She always believed women should be financially independent and thus always did what she had to, to make us totally believe that we were in the ‘student phase’- only studying and having the fun a child deserves, and encouraging us to make great friendships- nothing else was thrust upon us! At that point, me and my sister were the only ones from our neighbourhood who went to an English medium private school that was then the top most rated in the town! My dad took every cue my mum gave him with regards to our raising. To date, she has this fascination of speaking fluently in English- that I am sure, we, as her daughters fulfilled.

My dad growing up with financial restraints and unable to study at University as a full-time student, always had a special place for students with similar struggles. So, he continued the tradition of ‘varalabbay’– feeding students on 2-3 specified days of the week at home. He couldn’t have done these without my mum’s support as she has to cook fresh for all of us on those days, and not an easy task! Those students considered my parents as theirs.

One of the best memories from childhood usually are the birthday parties. Until now without needing any reminders, friends and relatives wish me on my birthday only because of how my mum used to host the parties. Dad is also all up for celebrations too. Mum is an excellent cook and used to bake egg-less cakes in a pressure cooker on the sand in place of water. Those were the days sans internet- WOW! The other regular birthday dish was ‘saimya pulao‘. The whole neighbourhood buzzed with her hospitality. I have had so much fun celebrating birthdays with friends as a kid and a young adult, now I make it a point that I celebrate it not by partying but by giving it to those in need. Here, I have to thank my husband, who cares and shares this joy of giving.

My mum is a softhearted person with self-respect and due respect for others. I am sort of short-tempered, and all she tells me is to hold on to my emotions and reminds me not to let them loose; however others may behave, I shouldn’t change my core principles but be my caring self; I shouldn’t do anything that makes me regret of my deeds in years to come. A tough ask, but I am trying my best. At this juncture, I must mention my maternal grandparents, who were as soft and enamored with this culture of spreading love and warmth.

Mathru devo bhawa,
Pitru bevo bhawa
acharya devo bhawa
Athidhi devo bhava
–Respects to Mother, Father, Guru, and Guest. They are all forms of God.
This is the culture that nurtured me and alike. 

మంచి మాట/One Good Word 

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False friendship like the shadows of the forenoon goes on decreasing, and at last, dies out; while friendship true like that of the afternoon though scant at first achieves full stature soon

  • Bhatruhari Subhashithani.  

The same was quoted by my father, DrAyalasomayajula GopalaRao garu, in one of his books, ‘మంచి మాట’ (-one good word).


In this book, my father highlighted various aspects of life such as the importance and need of true friendships, moral responsibilities, the power of truth, strength in leading an exemplary life, what we seek vs. what’s good for us, how our inner thoughts influence our deeds, and many more—a must-read.

I am still on the first chapter of friendships reminiscing and celebrating my true friends that come and go (with my nomadic lifestyle;)) but treasured in my memory chest preciously forever. Who else can value them better than the one badly backstabbed on more than one occasion!
Every experience is worth it; no light without darkness.

The author, Dr. Ayalasomayajula GopalaRao, served as a Telugu and Sanskrit languages professor at Maharaja Sanskrit College, Vizianagaram, until his retirement in the year 2003. The Government of Andhra Pradesh appointed him as one of the four members of the Official Language Commission to study the usage of Telugu, its current impact and suggest steps to improve its continued use, given the English & Hindi preponderance in our day to day lives.

Dr. Rao has conducted several ‘Netravadhanam’ a language spoken just with eyes) and ‘Angushatavadhanam’ (language based on the movement of fingers) sessions across the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. His contribution to these relatively less known aspects of Telugu literary arts has earned him recognition from the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

More about my dad in detail soon! 

Semiya/Vermicelli Pulao

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Dry roast vermicelli and keep it aside. Grind Indian spices (Cloves, Cardamom, cinnamon, fennel, black pepper, kasuri methi) with fresh coconut and tomatoes. Shallow fry vegetables and dry fruits of your choice, add the ground paste with ghee/butter. Add water (2:1 with vermicelli) and let that boil. At this point, add the vermicelli, let it cook until the water is all absorbed.

This is my mum’s signature dish and my favourite!

Pepper Peanut Rice

Posted on by sreeyal

Dry roast peanuts, red chillies, cloves, black peppers, cinnamon, coriander and fennel seeds, any lentils, cashew, almonds.. whatever you can dry roast. Once cooled down, grind them all.

To a table spoon of oil, add chopped bell peppers, sweet corn, green peas, edamames, broccoli, and any vegetables that cook faster. Add boiled rice, salt, and butter/ghee. Once mixed well, add the powder we made. Switch off the flame and there you go!

Pepper peanut rice is ready!

Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing: My Journey!

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While traditional marketing runs on the four Ps – product, price, promotion, and place; modern marketing, also called digital marketing, runs primarily on place, place, and place. Place where you find the right audience, where prospects can find discounts, a place where people find answers to their questions.

Almost every platform gives marketers statistics of their target market, right from the number of people their posts have reached to the engagement to the best day and time to reach the prospects. E.g., Google Display Network comes with AdWords, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, SEO, to name a few.  Social media giants like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest have opened up their platforms for marketing and sales, all aiming at reaching prospects who could be turned into customers. This digital process fills our customer funnels or flywheels. Imagine the magic these analytics do when one pays for ads on these platforms!

Several parameters such as age, gender, interests, likes, searches, queries, etc., add to filling their customer funnels. While customers find something that interests them, marketers find ‘data’ that keeps their funnels filling. In most scenarios, customers are aware of this. However, they continue to be that ‘data’ as it’s a win-win situation for those who feel they are part of this inevitable digital society. Remember the famous adage “if a service is free, you are the product”? Well, in this case, every socially active account holder is the data!

It is estimated that there are about 3.8 billion social media users with an estimated market of about 48 billion U.S. dollars.

https://www.statista.com/topics/1538/social-media-marketing/

While studying ‘Advertising’ during my MBA times, we were made aware of the legalese that marketers are allowed to enlarge their product image by a certain percentage. That’s how we bought many products, for over a century, just being enticed by the colour and size of the images. In this digital marketing world, the phenomenon of using ‘testimonials’ and ‘endorsements’ is also an attribute of advertising by either the ordinary buyer or a celebrity to appeal to the potential buyers. As a digital marketer, I understand no ‘enlarging’ the actual features is acceptable in these testimonials. What customers express is what they feel. Of course,  businesses should take reviews with personal targets and biases with a pinch of salt. This feedback marketing gains prominence with the advent of paid reviews by some big giants in this field!

This is my first marketing blog. I wanted to introduce those who see all these platforms daily but didn’t know that they are actually the data that keeps this billion market marketing world on the move.

I was part of the traditional marketing world since 2002. I started as an assistant marketing manager in India, and moving to the UK began the marketing ladder right from being a salesperson. That’s where I practised the real-time interactions salespeople have with customers that form the basis for ‘relationship marketing’ and ‘customer experience management (CX)’ –precisely what marketers need to know in their careers! Of course, thus followed awards and accolades.

With a break of a few years in my career and moving to the US, I dived into digital marketing without knowing what it was about six years ago! And in these three years, I have worked on brand awareness, email marketing, content creation, and managing advertisement campaigns for different companies and events; I’ve raised their sales by over 40% at times!  

Marketing was a proven success by many stalwarts who did not have either a marketing or a management degree. With digital marketing taking over traditional marketing, we have professional degrees in place, and even coding is now a part of it. Who would have thought!

Now, the world belongs to those who are ‘masters of many trades’.