Alone in the World

In a city high-rise, sitting in the balcony on the 25th floor, sipping tea, you look out into the horizon, city lights glimmering in the distance, cars fading away as they rush across the highway. You are surrounded by silence though you can hear the faint noises of the horns honking on the road. You look across at the building angularly adjoining yours and see shadows move across the large expansive windows. You wonder what they would be doing— their conversations, their actions, the scuttling and scurrying movements. You can feel the melancholy, the lonesomeness. You reflect how it was never like this before. As people navigate their way towards growth and success, they find themselves ‘ busy’ and others around them ‘ unavailable’ . This urban existence with its multidimensional challenges has led to an upsurge in the experience of loneliness and taking stock is a matter of pertinent significance. This book explores the spaces from which the problem of urban loneliness arises. It portrays in detail the facets of our lives which are contributing towards the emergence of this scenario. In Alone in the Crowd, the authors go beyond highlighting the existence of the problem to enlisting w

Dr Samir Parikh is an eminent psychiatrist working in the field of mental health over the past two decades. He is the director of the Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at Fortis Healthcare. Under his guidance and leadership, the Department works to provide comprehensive mental health services and also conducts specialized programmes for the community. He has been a speaker at various national and international forums on mental health issues. Dr Parikh has conducted various studies which have been published in the media and have helped the community get an insight into mental