Born into the country's first family of silk, Jeyasree 'Silkworm' Ravi was always naturally attracted to the silk business. It was never really a surprise that Jeyasree thus started off her own brand of pure silk sarees under the name and fashion of Sri Palam Silk Sarees, though not before dabbling in the world of computer software for a short while.
From meagre beginnings in 2003, Palam has grown from being a professional hobby into a thriving pure silk retail and wholesale business, with customers young and old acknowledging Palam's unique style of trendy, light weight pattu sarees. Soon, Jeyasree and Palam set out to rewrite the rules of silk retail. From innovative concept sarees like the Slim Fit saree and Corporate Pattu amongst others, to a unique, one-on-one, private chamber shopping experience at the Palam store in Chennai's Mylapore area, Palam is soon acquiring the mantle of being the industry's trend setter.
Further adding weight to the claim has been Palam's twin associations with Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan whose movie 2013 blockbuster Chennai Express had Palam Silks as saree partner followed up by a brand partnership with Happy New Year in 2014 - another first for the industry.
Besides Palam, Ms. Jeyasree is also a life skills trainer. Her programmes have reached thousands of people across the country spreading the message of simple rules of life to stay happy. The rules have also manifested into a book titled 'The Magical Scroll', available at leading book stores including Flipkart and Amazon, in book and e-book formats. Speaking in a mix of English and Tamil, Ms. Jeyasree breaks down everyday life situations to provide contrarian views, leaving it to the listener or reader to interpret their paths. Her programme, 'Morning Mantra with Jeyasree Ravi' on Radio One in Chennai, has scores of listeners calling in to get their questions on life, answered.
A voracious non-fiction book lover, Ms. Jeyasree is blessed with two daughters and a son, with her younger daughter recently joining her in managing Palam's marketing.
In her own words, by the time she is done with her duties in this world, she hopes to have dressed at least ten percent of the world's population in kanchipuram silk, and made the same number of people realise that living happily is easier than they'd like to believe.