Come Home, No Performance Pressure

The World Health Organization says one in six people around the world are struggling with loneliness—a statistic that includes not just the elderly, but young adults and working professionals too.

- ADITHI REENA AJITH

In metropolises like Gurugram and Delhi, where socializing often denotes pubs and parties, loneliness tends to show up more quietly: long workdays, dinners alone, and solitary lives far from home.

But this Gurugram youth and her dog are making a difference in an attempt to tackle isolation in the big city—starting with her own living room. Kainat Ahmed, an advisory consultant, moved to NCR in mid-2021, amid peak pandemic chaos, leaving behind the bustling city of Mumbai. "I didn't know anyone. I was also working remotely, so I didn't have colleagues to hang out with," she says.

At the time of her move, Ahmed says it wasn't just about feeling out of place—it was the deeper feeling of not belonging anywhere. "Feeling out of place assumes you belong somewhere or could," she says. "But I didn't feel like Gurugram was my place at all." In Mumbai, although alone, she had friends and colleagues. Ahmed took matters into her own hands.