20 young people attend first-of-its-kind workshop on Urban Loneliness

The city may give you everything and everyone you need yet can make you terribly lonely too Thats what 20 young people who attended a firstofitskind workshop on Urban Loneliness in Bandra West on Sunday were unanimous about The focus of the workshop was to establish that the concept of urban loneliness exists and is not a random feelingThrough the workshop the Alternative Story aims to create support groups of people who can share their feelings and eventually get help to cope with loneliness in this busy city The Alternative Story mdash a service provider of counselling and emotional wellbeing mdash decided to bring its initiative to Mumbai after a successful run in Bengaluru The plan is to expand to other metro cities tooThe idea to start this initiative was born during a series of counselling sessions where they noticed that loneliness was the one factor affecting most people said the experts from the Alternative StoryThe therapy sessions have put a light on the need of such a workshop In many cases existential counselling has worked in resolutions This prompted us to bring this topic out to more people so that they can not only identify it but also learn to deal or cope with it said Paras Sharma director programme and services at the Alternative StoryAt the workshops the coordinators enlisted different types of feelings of loneliness such as interpersonal social cultural intellectual and existential At a group discussion that goes on for four hours participants are encouraged by the coordinators to talk about their experience of loneliness and the related aspectsA workshop on Urban Loneliness at HaikuJAM Cottage Bandra on SundayThe best part of the workshop is to know that you are not alone in this and what you feel is certainly a possibility Once it is established one can go ahead with what can be done about it shared Elita a 31yearold Bhandup resident who attended the Sunday workshop Though I have lived in Mumbai all my life there are many people in my social circle I have outgrown Moreover I am a freelancer so that leaves hardly any other place like office where I can socialise on daily basis I do feel lonely but never did I know until the workshop that which type of loneliness is it that I am dealing with expressed ElitaFor Pallavi Arora a 25yearold migrant who now lives in Powai the experience is a little different In the fast pace life today especially in a metro city it is becoming difficult to build relations Especially for a migrant like me rebuilding live in this age is very difficult You may have colleagues here but it is not possible to build the same bonding as you could in a younger age said PallaviElaborating on the concept of this workshop Alternative Storys Sharma said in metro cities many feel they are living in isolation despite having people around Most interactions that we have are shallow he says adding that even a number of apps to meet people dont help muchThere is a lack of real or deep conversations which gives this feeling of beinglonelyeven in the crowd This experience of isolation leads to feelings or thoughts such as mdash Nobody is able to understand me or what I am going through and also Even if I just vanish one day nobody will noticeSharma points out how the previous generation were more neighbourly and were happy But those institutions have collapsed now Even in housing societies now there might be several WhatsApp groups but nobody really knows each other And this leads to the feeling of isolation especially among those who are migrantsAccording to Sharma millennials are most affected as this generation is facing a lot of transition Now for this generation people in the age group of 2140 there is no way of going back to the old way of life Another affected group is of migrants There is a lot of migration for academics as well as work purpose said Sharma adding that they will continue to hold such sessions at the Bandra office to help more and more peopleCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates