Photo slot · Rekha
Rekha, 34
Bangalore · with Sarathi since 2024
"Every elder I visit teaches me something I didn't know I was missing."
Companionship for parents in India
Your Amma deserves a friend.
You call them
You gave everything to build a life abroad. Sarathi makes sure your parents aren't living it alone.
Trusted by families in 12 countries 500+ visits completed Bangalore, India
Photo slot · elder & Sarathi over chai
The part money can't cover
You call. You send money. You worry. But you know what they really need.
Someone to talk to
Not about health updates or bills. Just conversation. Stories. Laughter.
Someone who shows up
Every week, same time, same Sarathi. Someone they can look forward to.
Someone who tells you they're okay
After every visit, you get a warm note. Not a medical report — a story about their day.
That's what a Sarathi is.
Three steps
Simple to start. Easy to stop.
Step one
You choose a plan.
Brief. Flexible. Starts at ₹2,499 a month.
Step two
We match your parent with their Sarathi.
The same companion, every visit — matched by language, interests and personality.
Step three
You get a note after every visit.
A warm summary. So you know they smiled today.
Photo slot · looking through an album together
Our promise
Not a nurse. Not a helper. A friend.
Sarathis don't manage your parent's medications or clean their house. They listen to their stories, play their favourite card game, walk with them to the park, and remind them that someone thinks about them. Every single week.
"My mother-in-law lights up before Sarathi Rekha even rings the doorbell."
Ways to begin
Start with what feels right.
Chai & Conversation
Weekly visits built entirely around talking, listening and company.
From ₹2,499/month
Activities & Outings
Walks, card games, hobbies and short outings they look forward to.
₹4,299/month
Your Sarathi, Your Way
Shopping, cooking together, appointments — companionship in every sense.
₹7,499/month
Background-verified Sarathis
Sarathi Academy certified
Summary after every visit
Cancel anytime
Booking in your timezone
What happens next
You're in London. Your father is in Bangalore. Here's what happens next.
1
You book online in five minutes
Choose a plan, tell us about your parent.
2
We call your parent to introduce their Sarathi
In their language, at a time that suits them.
3
First visit within 48 hours
Chai, introductions, no agenda.
4
You get a note that evening
A few honest lines about how it went.
5
Then it repeats, every week
Same Sarathi. Same day. Something to look forward to.
Amma was in the kitchen when I reached — she'd made kesari because her sister used to make it on Tuesdays. We ate it on the balcony and she told me about the Kolar house and the well behind it. She laughed at her own story twice. Her knee is stiff in the mornings, so we walked only to the gate and back. Same time next week.
Sent to you at 7:40 PM IST · 9 photos of the balcony, if you want them
This is what a visit note looks like. Not a report. A story.
In their words
Two people. The same Tuesday.
"I used to dread Sunday calls because I could hear the loneliness. Now my father has something to tell me — about what he and his Sarathi talked about that week."
Toronto · father in Bangalore
"She doesn't treat me like I'm old. She treats me like I'm interesting."
Jayanagar, Bangalore
Your parents gave you everything. Give them a Sarathi.
Start with one visit. If it doesn't feel right, we'll refund it — no questions.
How it works
Four steps, and then a Tuesday they look forward to.
Booking takes about five minutes. Everything after that is ours to carry.
Step one
Choose your plan
Basic — weekly chai and conversation. Regular — walks, games and hobbies. Premium — a companion for outings, shopping and appointments too.
Step two
We get to know your parent
A 20-minute call — with you, then with them. We learn their name for themselves, their language, their routine, the film songs they know by heart, and what they'd rather not talk about.
Step three
Meet your Sarathi
We match on language, personality and shared interests — then the same Sarathi comes back every week. You'll see their profile and approve the match before the first visit.
Step four
You stay connected
A warm note reaches you after every visit. If something feels off — low mood, a fall, a change in appetite — we flag it to you the same day.
The mood flag
Honest notes, not reassuring ones.
A note that always says "everything is fine" is worth nothing. If your father seemed quieter than usual, the note says so. If he refused to go down for a walk three weeks running, you'll know. You decide what to do with it — we'll never call a doctor or a relative without asking you first.
Same-day note
Mood flag when needed
You're always the first call
Appa didn't want to go to the park today, second week now — he said his chappal was giving trouble but I think it's the steps. We played rummy instead and he won twice and made sure I knew it. I'd gently mention the steps to him when you call. Otherwise he ate well and asked when you're visiting in December.
Mood flag raised · low mobility confidence
Questions families ask
Before you decide.
Tell us and we'll rematch, no charge and no awkwardness. It happens — personality is not a spreadsheet. Most families who rematch do it after the first or second visit, and the second match usually sticks.
Yes. Our booking page detects where you are and shows call slots in your local time alongside IST, so you're never doing the maths at midnight.
Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali and English. We match on the language your parent is most comfortable being themselves in — which is often not the one they're most fluent in.
Sarathis are trained to call emergency services and your listed local contact immediately, then you — wherever you are, whatever the hour. We are not a medical service, so we don't diagnose or treat, but nobody sits and waits.
Anytime, from your account, with no exit call and no retention offers. Unused visits in the current month are refunded pro-rata.
No. Sarathi is companionship. We don't give medication, provide nursing, or replace a doctor or attendant. If your parent needs clinical care, we'll tell you honestly and can point you to people who do it well.
Our Sarathis
Every Sarathi is chosen because they genuinely love spending time with elders. Not because it pays well. Because it means something to them.
Sarathi Academy
Fourteen days before they meet your parent.
Every Sarathi trains before their first visit — and keeps training every month after.
- Active listening — how to let a silence sit instead of filling it
- Elder psychology — loneliness, grief, memory changes, dignity
- Cultural sensitivity — food, faith, festivals, family hierarchy
- Scope boundaries — what to do, and firmly what not to do
- Session documentation — writing an honest, warm visit note
1 in 20
applicants becomes a Sarathi
We turn away kind, capable people every week — usually because they want a job, not this job.
Photo slot · a training session at the Academy
Meet a few of them
The people who'll be sitting in your parent's living room.
Photo slot · Mahesh
Mahesh, 41
Bangalore · former schoolteacher
"Thirty years of teaching taught me that most people just want to be heard properly once a week."
Photo slot · Fathima
Fathima, 29
Bangalore · psychology graduate
"My own Nani died while I was in another city. I know exactly what a Tuesday visit is worth."
Before anyone enters your parent's home
Five checks, every single Sarathi.
Police verification
Address verification
Reference checks
Family consent on file
Sarathi Academy certified
Verification documents for your parent's matched Sarathi are shared with you before the first visit. You can ask for them again at any point.
Scope
What your Sarathi will do — and won't do.
They will
- Sit, talk and listen — for as long as your parent wants
- Play cards, carrom, chess; watch a film; sing along badly
- Walk with them to the park, temple, market or barber
- Help with a phone, a video call to you, an online form
- Accompany them to a doctor's appointment and take notes
- Tell you honestly how the visit went
They won't
- Give medicines, injections, or any nursing or medical care
- Do housework, cleaning or cooking as a chore
- Handle your parent's money, cards, jewellery or documents
- Stay overnight or act as a live-in attendant
- Give medical, legal or financial advice
- Discuss your parent with anyone outside your family
We keep this list short and firm on purpose. A friendship works because everyone knows what it is.
Meet the Sarathi we'd match with your parent — before you pay anything.
Plans & pricing
Start with what feels right. Change anytime.
No setup fee, no lock-in, no charge for the intro call. Prices below are per month for one parent.
Basic
Chai & Conversation
₹2,499/month
8 hours a month · about one visit a week
- Chitchat, stories, and being properly listened to
- The same Sarathi every week
- A visit note to you after every visit
- Video call with you during a visit, on request
Best for parents who love a good conversation.
Start with BasicRegular
Activities & Outings
₹4,299/month
16 hours a month · about two visits a week
- Everything in Basic
- Walks, card games, carrom, hobbies
- Short outings — park, temple, market, a friend's house
- Festival visits on request
Best for parents who enjoy doing things.
Start with RegularPremium
Your Sarathi, Your Way
₹7,499/month
30 hours a month · about four visits a week
- Everything in Regular
- Shopping and errands together
- Cooking together — their recipes, their kitchen
- Company at doctor's appointments, with notes for you
Best for parents who want a companion in every sense.
Start with PremiumPrices are billed in Indian rupees. Other currencies are indicative and converted at today's rate.
Not happy after the first visit? Full refund. No questions.
One email is enough. We'd rather lose the month than have your parent sit through a visit that doesn't feel right.
An honest comparison
What ₹4,299 a month actually buys.
| Sarathi | Calling more often | Elder care agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Someone physically present | Weekly, in person | No | Yes |
| Same person every time | Always | You | Rotating staff, usually |
| Purpose of the visit | Company and conversation | Company | Medical & physical care |
| You hear how they really are | Honest note after each visit | Only what they choose to tell you | Clinical updates |
| Cost | ₹2,499–₹7,499/month | Free | ₹15,000–₹40,000+/month |
| Best when | They're well, but alone | Always — keep calling | They need clinical care |
If your parent needs nursing or physiotherapy, an agency is the right answer and we'll say so on the call. Many families use both.
Pricing questions
The small print, in plain words.
A session is two hours in your parent's home or nearby. Travel time for the Sarathi is on us. Anything they spend during an outing — auto fare, tea, a temple donation — is reimbursed from a small float you top up, and every rupee appears in your monthly statement.
None. The intro call, the matching, the onboarding call with your parent and the profile sharing are all free. You pay for the first month only once you've approved the match.
Yes — extra hours are ₹320 each, added from your account, and often used around festivals, hospital visits or when you're travelling. You can also move up or down a plan from the first of any month.
Pause for up to three months and we hold the same Sarathi for your parent. Families usually pause when they're visiting India themselves — which is exactly the right reason.
Yes. International cards, UPI and NRE/NRO accounts all work. Billing is in rupees, so your card's exchange rate applies on the day.
Not sure which plan? That's what the free call is for.
Stories
What families say — in their own words.
"I used to dread Sunday calls because I could hear the loneliness. Now my father has something to tell me — about what he and his Sarathi talked about that week."
Toronto · father in Bangalore
"She doesn't treat me like I'm old. She treats me like I'm interesting."
Jayanagar, Bangalore
"My mother-in-law lights up before Sarathi Rekha even rings the doorbell. I've stopped feeling like the bad daughter-in-law."
Houston, TX · mother-in-law in Mysore
"For two years I thought the answer was to move him here. He didn't want to come. This is the first thing that worked for both of us."
Melbourne · father in Bangalore
"My son worries. Now he has less to worry about, and I have a Thursday."
Malleshwaram, Bangalore
"I've been a Sarathi for a year. I've learnt more about the city I grew up in from eleven people who lived it before me."
Sarathi since 2024
A longer story
The Sunday call that changed.
Written by Deepa R., Edinburgh. Her mother lives in RT Nagar, Bangalore.
My mother is not a complainer. That was the problem.
Every Sunday I'd call at 9 in the morning her time, and every Sunday she'd say the same three things: she was fine, the milk had come, had I eaten. Twelve minutes, sometimes fifteen. Then she'd say don't waste money on the call, and hang up before I could argue.
For a long time I told myself this was just how she was. Then in October my cousin visited her and mentioned, not unkindly, that the fridge was almost empty and Amma hadn't been down to the park in weeks. She'd stopped going because the watchman she used to talk to had left. That was it. That was the whole reason. One person leaving a building had removed the only conversation she had between Sundays.
I found Sarathi in November. I remember being suspicious of it — it sounded like something invented to make people like me feel better. On the intro call I said that out loud. The woman on the call agreed with me, which I did not expect, and then asked what my mother had done before she retired. Twenty-six years teaching chemistry at a girls' school. She wrote that down.
They matched her with Fathima, who is 29 and reads Urdu poetry and had never held a test tube in her life. I thought it was a mistake. The first visit lasted three hours and Amma taught her how to make a titration work using a kitchen dropper.
The first note came that evening. It said my mother had talked for two hours, that she'd shown Fathima a photo of her 1994 class, and that she'd asked twice whether Fathima had eaten. I read it three times on the train home.
What changed wasn't dramatic. She still says she's fine. But now the Sunday call goes forty minutes, because there's something to report — Fathima's cousin's wedding, the mango tree, an argument they had about a film. Last month Amma went back to the park. She goes with Fathima on Thursdays and sometimes alone on other days, which she mentioned casually, as though it were nothing.
I still live 7,000 kilometres away. I still can't be there. What's gone is the specific fear I used to carry on Sunday mornings — that she was sitting in that flat with no one to talk to and would never tell me.
She has a Thursday now. It turns out that was most of what she needed.
Shared with permission. Names used with the family's consent.
Your parent's story is still being written. Give them someone to tell it to.
About us
Sarathi was born from a feeling most of us know — the helplessness of being far from someone you love.
Photo slot · founder portrait
Replace with a real founder photograph before launch — families will look you up before they trust you with their parent.
Why this, why now, why Bangalore
The gap nobody was filling.
In 2022 I was in another country when my grandmother had a fall. She was found four hours later by a neighbour. She recovered. What didn't recover was my certainty that "she's fine, she has help at home" meant anything at all.
She had a cook. She had a cleaner. She had a doctor two streets away and a son who sent money every month. What she did not have was one person who came to see her — who asked what she thought, remembered her sister's name, and noticed that she'd stopped humming while she cooked.
There is an industry for the body. There is almost nothing for the rest of a person. Sarathi is our attempt at the rest.
We started in Bangalore because it holds the highest concentration of elders whose children left for exactly the reasons the city trained them to — and because we could be there in person, every week, while we learnt how to do this properly. We're not in a hurry to be everywhere. We'd rather be very good in one city first.
— Founder name here
What we believe
We believe no elder should feel like a burden for wanting company. And no child should have to choose between their life and their parents' happiness.
Sarathi Academy
Quality is a training problem.
Every Sarathi completes 14 days of training before their first visit, plus a monthly supervision session where they bring the hard cases — a parent who's withdrawn, a family that wants more than we should give, a grief that surfaced mid-visit. A clinical psychologist runs those sessions.
See how Sarathis are trainedAdvisory
The people who keep us honest.
Clinical psychologist
Elder mental health · designs the Academy curriculum and monthly supervision. To be named.
Social worker
Twenty years in community elder care in Karnataka. To be named.
Elder care advisor
Geriatric care planning · advises on when to refer families elsewhere. To be named.
Press
Media coverage will appear here. If you're writing about elder loneliness in India, we're glad to talk — press@sarathi.care.
Talk to us before you decide anything.
Fifteen minutes, no commitment, and an honest answer about whether we're right for your family.
Free intro call
Let's talk about your parent — and find the right Sarathi for them.
15 minutes. No commitment. We'll tell you honestly if Sarathi is right for your family.
Slots in your timezone
Or talk to us on WhatsApp
Your details stay with us
What does a normal day look like for them? Who do they still talk to? What did they do before they retired? What would make a Tuesday afternoon good? And — honestly — what are you most worried about?
Prefer to write? hello@sarathi.care · Prefer to talk now? WhatsApp us.
For employers
Give your team the gift of knowing their parents are okay.
Thousands of your employees have parents in India. Many of them carry the invisible weight of being far from home. Sarathi is the employee benefit that addresses what no other benefit can.
Less anxiety, fewer distractions
The worry doesn't stay at home. Employees with an ageing parent abroad interrupt their week for calls, emergencies and guilt they can't name.
Care your team can feel
Most benefits speak to the employee. This one speaks to their mother. It's remembered differently — and it's talked about.
Simple to deploy
Employees sign up in the Sarathi app with their work email. You get usage reporting, no personal details, one invoice.
Pricing
Custom plans for teams of 50 to 50,000.
Fully sponsored, partly subsidised, or offered at a corporate rate your team pays themselves — most companies start with a subsidised pilot in one office.
1
A 30-minute call with your HR team
We'll size the population that would actually use this.
2
Pilot with 25–50 employees
Three months, real usage data, anonymous feedback.
3
Roll out where it lands
Single invoice, quarterly reporting, no employee data shared with you.
Talk to us
We'll reply within one working day.
The benefit your team will call home about.
Legal
Privacy & cookies
Written to comply with India's DPDP Act 2023 and the GDPR. Have your counsel review before launch.
What we collect
Your name, email, phone number and country; your parent's name, city, language and the details you choose to share so we can match them well; visit notes written by their Sarathi; and payment records held by our payment provider, not by us.
Why we collect it
To match your parent with a Sarathi, deliver visits, send you visit notes, and bill you. We do not sell data, and we do not use your parent's visit notes for advertising or for training any model.
Who can see it
The matched Sarathi, their supervisor, and the family members you name. Nobody else — including other relatives — without your instruction.
Your rights
Ask us for a copy of everything we hold, correct it, or have it deleted, by writing to privacy@sarathi.care. We'll respond within 30 days. Your parent has the same rights over their own information, and can exercise them directly.
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