From hobby clubs to game nights and private dinners: How Delhi-NCR is tackling urban loneliness

Glued to screens throughout the week, weekends are the time for Dikshit to seek real-life interactions. She does not have many friends or family in Delhi-NCR, so she often finds herself attending dinners and game nights hosted in the homes of strangers. Many of these people are like her – socially stunted by the pandemic, and looking for ways to build a social life and counter their loneliness.

A report published in June 2025 by the World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) Commission on Social Connection estimated that one in six people worldwide suffers from loneliness (2014-23). The report linked loneliness to an estimated 100 deaths every hour – more than 871,000 annually – and flagged the role of the pandemic and increased use of digital technology in the problem.

An Ipsos 2021 Global Survey found that at least 4 in 10 urban Indians – 45% – felt lonelier after the pandemic, and 43% of respondents said they often felt friendless.

The WHO report defined loneliness as a form of social disconnection that is “a negative, subjective emotional state resulting from a discrepancy between one’s desired and actual experience of connection” – this is different from social isolation, which the report said is “the objective state of having few roles, relationships and social interactions with others”.

People play card games at the ‘The Lost Table’ session in Gurgaon. Express

Bonding over food and games

One evening last month, in a sixth-floor apartment in a highrise Gurgaon condo, a Diwali party was in full swing. There were diyas and marigolds, and bottles of alcohol lined up on a sideboard. On the dining table was a buffet of Indian dishes – from paneer kofta to ghee roast chicken.

On a white baithak laid out on the floor, amid colourful cushions, sat a dozen people – students in their early 20s and young professionals perhaps a little older – playing cards with animation and enthusiasm. “Two, two… three, three!” the shouts rang out across the sitting room.

A young couple moved around the floor, offering the card players samosas on eco-friendly plates lined with banana leaves. They were the hosts for the evening – a Diwali daawat-themed edition of The Lost Table, an intimate supper club hosted in private homes. This is social dining – and a chance to make new friends – for people who find themselves with no plans and nowhere to go on Saturday nights.

“It’s a more relaxed space than a restaurant. You end up meeting more people while enjoying a unique food experience,” Archit Agarwal (30) and Natasha Ratti (29), the couple behind The Lost Table, told The Indian Express. “Before the Diwali theme, we hosted a Turkish-inspired dinner.”

The Diwali event, which went on till half an hour past midnight, began with golgappa shots, moved through games like Codenames, Teen Patti, and Tambola, and ended with the buffet.

Agarwal and Ratti, who have full-time corporate jobs in Gurgaon, host private dinners with curated menus twice every other week, priced at around Rs 3,000 per person. “When we started 18 months ago, we hosted six people once a month. Now, we serve 32 people a month,” Agarwal said.

The idea of The Lost Table works well for Dikshit. She has attended four dinners so far. “I moved from Lucknow to Gurgaon in 2019, and my work is entirely online. This means that I don’t talk to real people a lot during the week. These avenues are good places for me to meet new people. Since they are hosted at home, the setting is more intimate, and it is easier to break the ice and make friends,” she said. “Since I am a regular, the hosts have become good friends.”

Priyans M, a 33-year-old businessman who moved from Mumbai to Delhi three years ago, attended The Lost Table with his wife. “When you move cities, it’s hard to make friends. I have friends all over the world, but they’re not in the same city as I am. I schedule calls and talk to them but that’s not the same as meeting people in real life,” he said.

Group activities around shared hobbies

In another part of Gurgaon, about 20 humans and a nine-year-old pet dog named Joey gathered around the Khole Wale Baba Ka Mandir in Sector 54 on a weekday morning. It was before dawn – 5.15 am – and the group was ready to embark on a 3.5-km hike on what is called the Suncity Loop Trail.

The group is part of Trail It Outdoors, a hiking club that is listed on an app called Misfits, which offers hobby-based offline meetups in Delhi-NCR. Misfits, which was launched in 2023, lists some 15 categories of hobbies from dancing and board games to badminton and hiking, and about 120 clubs for them. Those who want to attend the events must pay a small community fee that depends on the type of activity.

As people arrived – mostly solo – some recognised faces in the crowd and hands were shaken and hugs were exchanged. Thirty-year-old Trishla Bafna, who works for an impact consulting firm in Gurgaon, said, “I’ve attended six or seven meetups, like art sessions and hikes, this year. The more I attend, the easier it gets to make friends as I bump into familiar faces.”

Bafna moved from Ranchi two years ago, and her initial stay in the NCR was lonely. “But this third year has been much better after attending events like these and socialising,” she said.

The mobile phone had been 33-year-old English teacher trainer Mayank Kaushik’s closest companion for six months. After quitting his job in Kerala and moving to Gurgaon to live with his mother in May, most of Kaushik’s days slipped away in endless doomscrolling. He downloaded Misfits in the hope of meeting people in real life. “… Through these meetups like the hike, I’m getting to know that real people exist outside of people on my phone,” he said laughing.

Shashwat Narathiyar (28), one of Misfits’ four co-founders, said the average age of people who attend these offline meetups is around 20-35, and one reason why the app works is the very real problem of urban loneliness.

“It’s hard to make friends organically in big cities, as most people are corporate migrants. Not many have work environments where they can form friendships. So, there’s a chunk of people who miss out on a social life, and Misfits is for them,” he said.

Narathiyar drew a distinction between hobby-based apps such as Misfits and the regular “friendship” apps. “If we say we’re meeting for a hike or to play board games, and as a user you’re just going to do that activity, you end up making friends while doing it. But if you advertise a ‘friendship’ feature, like on dating apps, people hesitate because they don’t want to admit they’re lonely,” he said.

A similar idea inspired 25-year-old content creator and product manager Shivank Goel to start Yellow Club – a platform for adults to forge platonic friendships through activities they enjoy. “Once we leave college, making new friends becomes difficult. I started Yellow Club because I was struggling to make real social connections,” Goel said.

Goel held Yellow Club’s first event at his home in September, at which eight strangers came together for a murder mystery-themed evening. “The event had three rounds. The first involved holding hands and answering deeper questions to build trust and strong bonds, the second required teamwork to solve the mystery, and the third was a relaxed space where we danced and played games,” he said.

Goel discovered that his guests were “craving real connections beyond just ‘hi’ and ‘hello’. They want real friends to talk to”.

Note of caution: No magic cure for loneliness

Clinical psychologist Ashima Gupta said loneliness has become an “epidemic” in Delhi-NCR. “Communities are shrinking, and the fast-paced lifestyle leaves little time for meaningful connections,” she said.

According to Gupta, the 25-45 age group is especially vulnerable to loneliness. “For a lot of people, this is a phase of major transitions, from student to working adult, and responsibilities pile up. The need to upskill and compete for jobs often leads to social life getting sidelined,” she said.

Gupta believes stranger meetups are good starting points to tackle loneliness, but cautions that they can only go so far. “Sometimes these gatherings fail to create deeper connections, and can even heighten self-criticism. Unless people see these events as the first step towards lasting relationships, their impact on mitigating loneliness might remain limited.”

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