A Friend Indeed - is a Friend who You can Talk to !

 

A ready prototype for IIT Bombay :  

" Share Your Soul ",  a  24x7  student s upport  portal ( offered free )

https://claude.ai/artifact/48Ey5yfaXpRnDiwa5xxPgL

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Dear Prof. Kedare,

 {  director@iitb.ac.in  }

I read that IIT Bombay has invited applications for 30 ad-hoc counsellor posts.

This is a welcome step. I write to offer something that can multiply what those

counsellors are able to do, and that is ready for you to look at today.

In July 2016 I wrote a blog, " Share Your Soul / Outsourcing Unlimited "

 (myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/07/share-your-soul-outsourcing-unlimited.html), 

prompted by Japan's "rent-a-friend" services. Its idea: many people in distress will

not walk into an office, but they will talk to a patient, non-judgemental listener

who is available at any hour. Ten years later, newspapers report that people in

India too are now paying to hire a friend who will simply listen. The need is plain.

In July 2026 I developed this into a white paper, " From Prohibition to Provision "

  myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/07/from-prohibition-to-provision.html  , 

with an Implementation Blueprint for a five-layer emotional-support system.

Rather than ask your students to build such a portal, I have now prepared a

clickable prototype of one, designed for IIT Bombay:

https://claude.ai/artifact/48Ey5yfaXpRnDiwa5xxPgL

It has seven screens:

 

> the student's home page, 

> a live walk-through of three situations (exam stress, loneliness after a hostel move, and a crisis), 

> a peer listener portal, 

> a counsellor console for the Student Wellness Centre,

>  an anonymous "Speak up" channel, 

>  a Director's observatory, and 

>  a map of the 13 AI agents that run it under one Orchestration Agent.

The design rests on a few principles:

• Students stay anonymous. Nothing reaches their department, grades or

  disciplinary committees.

• The moment risk is detected, a human counsellor is brought in within minutes,

  24x7. The AI never handles a crisis alone, and the counsellor, not the software,

  decides any further step.

• Trained senior students act as paid peer listeners, supervised by your

  counsellors, so the 30 new counsellors can focus on the students who need them

  most.

• Complaints about hostels, exams or conduct go to an independent

 ombudsperson, not to the people concerned, with a 7-day deadline that alerts the

 Director if missed.

• The Director sees anonymised weekly trends (load, themes, the late-night hours

  when students reach out) so causes can be fixed, not only symptoms.

• The aim is to return students to friends and campus life, not to keep them on an

  app.

The underlying code for the national version (TeleMANAS 2.0) is already published

 free at github.com/hemen-parekh/telemanas. A single-campus pilot would need

 only a fraction of the national estimate.

I offer the prototype and the design to IIT Bombay free of charge. I would be glad

 to walk you, your Dean of Student Affairs and the Student Wellness Centre team

 through it at your convenience, here in Powai where I spent many years at L&T.

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

hemenparekh.ai | hemenparekh.in

Mumbai

===================================================

Clickable prototype 

· IIT Bombay student wellbeing portal

Share Your Soul @ IIT Bombay

A campus emotional-support portal run by a team of AI

agents under one Orchestration Agent, with trained peer

listeners and the Student Wellness Centre's counsellors as

 the human core. Built on the Implementation Blueprint in

From Prohibition to Provision (July 2026) and the Talker–

Listener idea of Share-Your-Soul (July 2016).

Mock-up · all data is sample data

Whatever you're carrying, you don't have to carry it alone.

No roll number, no name, no record on your transcript. Pick how you want to talk.

SwaSamvaad · your mantra

"I am Good. I am Better. I am Best."

Breathe in as the circle grows, out as it shrinks. Day 6 of your streak.

Written with the student at sign-up; surfaced by the Swar agent when low mood is detected.

What this portal promises you

• You stay anonymous. Only you hold the key to your identity.
• Nothing here reaches your department, your grades or disciplinary committees.
• If you are in danger, a trained human, not a bot, takes over.
• The aim is to get you back to your friends and your life, not to keep you on an app.

Prototype by Hemen Parekh ( hemenparekh.ai ) , October 2026, offered free of

 charge to IIT Bombay. 

Everything shown is illustrative sample data; no real student data is used. In

 an emergency, call Tele MANAS 14416 or 1800-891-4416.