Ashutosh Purohit

Building @YenmoIn | YC Alum | BITS

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

I used to think the same, until I had to go through this last year.

Just after someone passes, you are in immense grief, being alone or letting your mind at rest can have your thoughts spiral out of control.

The rituals are meant to keep you engaged and have people around you, for a certain time, hopefully by then you are slightly better to handle your self.

[Srinivas Deepu @srinivas_deepu]

Funerals in India are such a chaotic thing. The moment someone passes away, everything suddenly becomes about rituals, timings and making sure everything is being done the “right” way.

And somewhere in all of this, we forget that this is the last time the people closest to the deceased will get to be with them.

There’s barely any space to just sit with them, process what has happened or simply spend those last few moments in peace. Instead, there are ten different people telling you ten different things. Someone wants you to do something one way, someone else says that's wrong and everyone has something to add.

Sometimes it just feels like we're so focused on completing the rituals correctly that we forget what those moments are actually supposed to be about. Saying goodbye.

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

India’s middle class is the most exploited group in every sense.

The lower income doesn’t have enough money to make exploitation worth it and the upper have means to avoid it.

From bad roads, harassment from trans people on street, sky rocketing land prices to really bad infrastructure - the worst brunt is felt by the middle class

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

Swiggy is no longer what it used to be. I was a hardcore die hard Swiggy fan, but after multiple pathetic experiences I have given up.

Only Zomato it is for me now.

P.S - I still have Swiggy installed, the ex-swigster in me still hopes to see it revive to its past glory

[Nandini M @your_niaaaa]

My tiny revenge story against Swiggy

Day before yesterday, I ordered Biryani and some Kebab worth 520 at around 8:40 PM.

By 9:05 PM, a delivery partner was assigned, but he was still quite far from the restaurant. I spent almost 20 minutes fighting for my dinner through the chatbot. Eventually, customer care changed the delivery partner.

By then, it was 9:35 PM and I was no longer hungry. I was spiritually preparing to become food 😅.

The new delivery partner also barely moved, so I called customer care again and asked them to cancel the order. I was told I would have to pay a cancellation fee. I asked to speak to a manager, was put on hold and then the call was disconnected.

The biryani finally arrived at 10:55 PM. Two hours and fifteen minutes after I placed the order. At that point, the food had basically become a late night guest.

Today, I placed a COD order worth ₹700 in the afternoon from a good restaurant to a different location and decided not to accept it. I am assuming the delivery partner gets to keep the food, so at least someone had a good meal.

Consider this my very small revenge, Swiggy.

I have uninstalled the app for now. I will be sticking to Zomato and Ownly for my future orders.

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

Dollar Store is the best product of America

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

For those interested on why it was this high and the events that lead to the drop read Bad Money by Vivek Kaul

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

While I understand where he’s coming from I still support putting light on buildings. The reason is that the only thing that sells these days is if it’s instagrammable,
While a building built beautifully is art, there are far few to appreciate it. Something that is eye catching, attracts views and eventually tourism as well. I think India definitely needs more tourists.

Ofc there are many other things to solve as well, but if it takes pinning lights on buildings is a start and I’m all for it

[Damon Zumbroegel @DamonZumbroegel]

Mysuru Palace - the biggest attraction in Mysuru, India
Couple things I noticed :
- It was designed by a British Architect
- and….India covered it in light bulbs! For real! Ha!

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

Love the analogy of how we’re used to always have a trade off between speed and cost.

The internet changed that for messaging - much cheaper to send message instantly across the world compared to getting it couriered.

Cheering for you Naman!

[Naman Pushp @TheRealNamzoo]

For too long, we've accepted that the flying is a fundamentally more expensive form of movement. I reject that reality.

Today we're announcing our $37M Series A, led by @Greenoaks, to build a world where all movement is in the air.

https://t.co/OqVzz2073i

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

Open question - has the abundance of man power in India led us in being behind in tech. I know they’re not directly correlated maybe, however I do think wherever a task is needed to be done, in India we just have some manpower ready to help.
Abroad - manpower is scarce and so you need to innovate to get the same work done.
Lot of seemingly simple things ( eg cleaning a house) involve great amount of tech (robo cleaner).

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

As I’ve said - Indian driving is basically trying to optimizing only for self not realizing it’s leading to worse outcomes for everyone including self

[Bhavesh Chauhan @bhaveshch79]

This is Panathur–Balagere Road near the railway underpass this morning.

Yes, we have an infrastructure problem.
Yes, the authorities need to do more.

But look at these pictures. We also have a driving discipline problem.

The moment traffic slows down, vehicles start moving into the opposite lane. Two-wheelers squeeze through every available gap. Autos and cabs follow. Within minutes, both sides are blocked.

And then nobody moves.

What I find interesting is that many of us complain about this traffic every day. We write about it in our community groups. We ask the government to fix it.

But when we are on the road, are we doing our part?

The same person who follows lane discipline while driving his own car may sit in a cab or auto and remain silent when the driver jumps the lane.

We can’t have two different standards.

I strongly feel the authorities should consider bringing back physical lane dividers on this stretch, especially around the railway underpass. It may not solve everything, but it can prevent vehicles from occupying the opposite lane and turning congestion into complete gridlock.

Better infrastructure is needed.

Better enforcement is needed.

But better civic behaviour is needed too.

Traffic discipline doesn’t start with the government. It starts with us.

@PanathurUpdates @wftrps @bbmpcommr @BalagereConnect
@BalagereRising @blrcitytraffic

#Panathur #Balagere #BengaluruTraffic #Bengaluru #LaneDiscipline #CivicSense

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

I think honking and driving in India stems from the fact that Indian driving is selfish.
Meaning you’re only looking out for yourself and optimizing for yourself. Rules etc are secondary

The way to see this is how many bikes don’t even have rear view mirrors. They don’t care about who’s coming from behind when they’re turning , or is there a car behind them while they’re shifting lanes.

Similarly for cars, if there was an option most cars would remove their mirrors too since they never use them anyways. Honking is how everyone figures out spatial awareness.

This also means if you’re someone who does follow rules, you have to also keep honking as no one else is looking out for you, so you keep honking as well

Another instance I noticed is - anytime I travel outside India, if I give way to a car to turn pass, the driver generally shows some form of appreciation through a gesture. In India, everytime I let a car pass, I get a smug face from the driver thinking he “won” some battle.

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

Why is visa renewal for India so hard? Anyone know? Is it a tech thing, ancient policies that never got updated or something else?

[Julia Chaigneau @juliachaigneau]

Thank god I love living in India, because the paperwork, patience, and life it takes out of me every visa renewal is insane, haha.

After a couple of weeks of this constant stress, I'm finally done with this round.

I know I'm far from the only one living as a foreigner somewhere, but it's always crazy to me how a few paperwork can dictate everything, after building my whole life in a country I love, with my work and my people around me.

Anyway, just thought I'd share this. I never really talk about this part of my life, even though it takes up such a big part of my year.

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

India may have gotten independence but the people’s mindset is still colonized

I was standing at a billing counter in lifestyle. There was only 1 billing counter operational. Some payment issue with the person in front of me, and it was taking longer than usual. That’s fine

Suddenly a foreigner shows up behind me and the staff starts scrambling around. They get a staff to come and start a new counter, escort her personally from the line to that counter and get the billing done immediately.

I understand if I’m not treated equally outside india, but within India was a bit unexpected.

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

Bangalore during rain is like a game of hardcore minesweeper

Every small pool of water on the road is either an innocent splash or the last thing you see before you fall into a deadly pothole underneath it

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

I would go as far as saying I think Bangalore as a city has the potential to be one of the best cities to live in the world. Even better than SF

Amazing weather, scenic spots with lakes and greenery good connectivity to other cities and a great ecosystem of companies.
If only we could improve road infrastructure, cleanliness and civic sense. They drag us so far back that even poorer countries seem better when viewed from unbiased eyes.

[Lee Kuan Yimby @LeeKuanYimby]

I was just in Mumbai, and I have to give them credit for the progress they’re making on infrastructure. The new Aqua Line metro is phenomenal. But the amount of work India still has to do on basic cleanliness and sanitation and it is hard to understand until you see it yourself. Would love for more westerners to go just to understand how wealthy they are, but that's a different point.

Mumbai is completely surrounded by water, yet there are almost no places where people can actually enjoy the water. The beaches are filled with trash, the water is badly contaminated, and almost nobody swims, even when it’s brutally hot outside. Walking on the beach is just mud and trash meeting filthy water on the horizon.

There are much poorer places around the world where people can still use the beaches. This is not just about money. India has gone decades without adequate trash collection, sewage treatment, or enforcement for a population of more than a billion people. At this point, the scale of the problem feels almost impossible, and the oceans around the world are paying the price for Indias garbage output as well.

I like the direction Modi is taking the country, but India needs to treat cleanup like a national emergency. Stop with the small campaigns and organize a full scale blitz.

Offer unemployed people paid work picking up trash, clearing drains and waterways, cleaning beaches, and maintaining public spaces. Give them proper equipment and supervision. Then build the collection and waste processing systems needed to stop everything from becoming filthy again a week later.

India has shown that it can build metros, airports, highways, and digital infrastructure. Clean streets and usable water should be treated as infrastructure too.

Mumbai should have one of the greatest waterfronts in the world. Instead, it's has basically an irrelevant feature of the city and feels surrendered to sewage and garbage.

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

I can believe everything except no road rage and no traffic
People are great, but they drive like maniacs.

How do I know? I’m a Gujarati as well

[Chirag Barjatya @chiragbarjatya]

I can’t believe the way this Surat city is growing. Wow. The roads are decent. People are calm (due to no alcohol), gyms are great, no road rage, visible footpaths, not much traffic. I hope they don’t mess this city up. High hopes.

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

This is a famous food joint in Bangalore, and they’ve built a part of their store around the tree instead of cutting it down.

I do have complaints with India, but there is a lot to admire as well

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

I had a mind fuck moment today with AI

I was sitting next to my wife speaking with @ChatGPT voice. She was speaking in Hindi, and then decided to speak in Telugu, which as expected worked decently well. However when she switched back to Hindi, the voice had started speaking in a South Indian Hindi accent.
The initial Hindi conversation was normal Hindi, but then it switched to this accent as it thought it’d be more relatable.

Damn!

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

It’s insane how you can tell which of them were born in US and which moved in later

[Lord Immy Kant @KantInEastt]

This is how an avg Indian celebrates potluck day in the US

[Ashutosh Purohit @ashutoshpuro97]

Is it only me - or does this video seem AI generated.

[Sharan Hegde @financewsharan]

The 1% Club App is live now! We put everything we know about money into one AI brain. Watch the film. Download link below. 🙏