Blog@Sahaaya

Thank you for your interest in Sahaaya!  The primary objective of Sahaaya is to provide a helping hand in taking care of our parents and loved seniors.  Sahaaya in the ancient Sanskrit language means “help” or “helper” and that’s what I am hopeful we can achieve over time.

My name is Ravi and I live with my wife and two kids in Atlanta, USA.  I have had the good fortune of growing up across the world in India, Africa, UK and the US.  My parents currently live in India and my sister lives as far as possible from all of us in Sydney, Australia!

Professionally, I have been lucky to work at some great companies, leading digital tech & data transformations across healthcare, retail, CPG and finance.  You can find out more about my past work on my LinkedIn profile at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rpacharya/.

I started Sahaaya based on a very personal, somewhat daunting experience.  Without going into all the gory details, a couple of years ago my Mom had a near-death health incident that required her to be immediately hospitalized in the ICU.  Thankfully, with the help of close family members nearby she was rushed to a hospital and given the best care that ultimately saved her life.  My sister and I both rushed to be with her but given the distance we could only be there 24 hours later.  Luckily, she made it through and we were all thrilled to take her back home and help with her recovery.

Once past the “immediacy” of the incident, it just made a few things painfully obvious:

Wellness

• My parents, especially my Mom would need to be closely monitored for several weeks.
• Medication would be taken in a timely manner; doctor visits need to be coordinated.

Home

• They would not be able to take care of routine household chores like before and would need assistance.

Food

• Daily meals and specialized diets will need to be supplied for an extended period of time.

Money

• Financially, they may require support to get through the new “costs”.

Social

• My sister and I would both have to return to our own homes, kids and jobs at some point. While we would have preferred to be close, in reality we had to find other ways to stay closely.
• Both my parents have been generally healthy and independent, so once they get back their confidence, they would like to maintain their independence.
• Socially, they would need to gradually get back into their routines and perhaps some adjusted behaviors.

As my parents returned to normalcy, it became more apparent to me that many of the above situations and observations were not unique to my situation but millions of others around the world.  As I did more research into this, I was convinced that smart technology can be deployed to help simplify many of these challenges and give others like me peace of mind that my parents are being taken care of well, from a distance.

In the coming posts, I will outline more details of our journey and how I hope Sahaaya can provide a helping hand in taking care of your loved ones from a distance.