About ManaSmurti
A companion for when you need someone who will just listen.
I built ManaSmurti because someone I care about needed it and it didn't exist.
A few years ago, someone close to me went through a stretch where everything felt uncertain at once. Work, family, finances. Nothing dramatic enough to call a crisis. Nothing small enough to ignore. They had good friends, but they'd already said everything they could. They didn't need therapy. They needed someone to just sit with them and help them think straight.
That person didn't exist. So I built one.
My name is Rakesh Krishnan. I'm from Bangalore. I'm not a psychologist or a wellness guru. I'm someone who has watched people I care about carry things they couldn't put down and couldn't talk about. I built ManaSmurti for them.
A private space to talk things through with someone calm and patient. Not someone who gives you advice you didn't ask for. Not someone who judges. Just someone who listens properly and helps you hear your own thinking more clearly.
Professional counselling is expensive, hard to access, and carries deep stigma in our country. Friends and family mean well, but they come with their own opinions and worries. For most people carrying everyday pressure, there has been no middle ground between suffering in silence and seeking clinical help. ManaSmurti is that middle ground.
Three things we know to be true
Everyone needs someone to talk to. Not everyone has that someone. The gap between “I'm fine” and actually being fine is where most people live their whole lives.
Talking helps. Not because the other person has answers, but because saying things out loud makes them clearer. The mess in your head starts to make sense when you hear yourself say it.
And getting that kind of support shouldn't cost you a month's rent or require booking a slot three weeks in advance.
Where this comes from
The name ManaSmurti comes from Sanskrit. Manas means mind. Smriti means awareness. Together, it's the practice of being conscious of your own thoughts — not to control them, but to understand them.
This isn't new age philosophy. The Charaka Samhita described the connection between mind and body over two thousand years ago. Modern research has arrived at the same place — that naming your emotions reduces their intensity, that talking through your experiences is one of the most effective ways to process them. What's ancient and what's modern agree on this. Research published in The Lancet Psychiatry has shown that scalable psychological interventions, even those delivered through technology, can significantly improve mental wellbeing.
We built ManaSmurti on both traditions. The warmth of Indian philosophy. The rigour of peer-reviewed research. Not because it sounds impressive, but because it works.