For Mumbai-based psychotherapist Cheelu Chandran, the loneliness that the pandemic-induced lockdown brought along was not any different from the feeling she experienced a few years ago, when her children moved to Boston to study. "I was quite devastated then," she remembers. Somewhere around that time, Chandran had started an offline support group, The Emptiness, to help others like her. The group, she says, would meet once a month. "Somehow it took off and yet not, if you know what I mean, because, I was also dealing with my own emotions."

Cut to March this year, a lot many more people, sequestered in their homes because of COVID-19, were going through bouts of anxiety and loneliness. "I was having a difficult time myself, despite my partner being around. Many corporate jobs too, had broken boundaries, due to which people were clocking in 12 to 18 hours a day. It was all very overwhelming," says Chandran. After months of deliberation, she decided to revitalise the old group and renamed it Gather, Nature, Connect (GNC). "I wanted it to be an online, non-judgmental platform, where we could simply reach out as friends." GNC started four weeks ago, and since then, the group has been meeting every Saturday on Zoom. Here, they share their week's happenings, or life experiences. "It has really helped me make meaning of my own mind," Chandran shares.