Life in the Time of Solitude

Going solo and loving it is the new philosophy of the young urban Indian on kinship, habitats, and technology

- By TANISHA SAXENA

In the pulsating heart of India's megacities, where the honking symphony of traffic competes with the clatter of chai glasses in narrow lanes, a quiet revolution is unfolding within the walls of apartments and studio flats. Millennials and Gen Z have a new dictionary of life solitude, independence, choice, self-worth, renewal, privacy, connection... The transformation is huge: the rise of the one-person household. To outsiders, this may seem a mere demographic footnote, but it signals something more profound: a reimagining of life in a society long defined by familial intimacy and collective living. Career ambitions have played a significant role in this shift. The lure of professional fulfillment in India's rapidly evolving knowledge economy often necessitates mobility, long hours, and sometimes geographical separation from family networks.