Friends for Sale?

Nobody understands what a teenager feels. And the last thing a person in their 30's would want to do – is to listen to rants of a loner and introverted kid – who has no friends.

Myra's situation was no different, as she lived far away from her hometown and parents in Buldhana district, with her strict elder brother in Navi Mumbai.

Staring at the phone up until the wee hours, became her routine. Being granted with a phone and internet doesn't mean a child is given all the fulfilling needs. With the formative years devoid of proper communication, care and affection... Her holistic development was stunted and her life mended into a solitary zone. She grew up friendless and stopped needing anyone. Yet, this need of wanting genuinely concerned people didn't outgrow her.

She watched her friends take group selfies and go for outings, as she sulked sitting at home. She went out of her room to eat her dinner quietly while scrolling through her phone; and later, wept herself to sleep. Not all teenagers get secretly drunk or madly dance at a party – some fall into the claws of Depression. Modern loneliness looks no different than this.

Her brother couldn't see it all along until she took ten seconds to even register what was happening. And a minute to respond.

She wasn’t deaf. She was lost, she had lost parts of her that most use to pull up a façade to appear and behave “Normally”.

While drowned in those thoughts of what should he do? He picked up his phone and mindlessly typed 'Loneliness' on search bar.

The results flashed. An ad of the topmost website read:

"Need friends? Want to feel that eternal joy of friendship?"

He clicked on it to see if it resembled a catfishing website or an online chatroom which is used by Predators, Pedophiles and Psychopaths use to find an online prey or a ‘friend’. They roam in a disguise of ‘nice guy, kinda shy’ type boy to lure naïve girls. The same poison-wrapped-in-honey kind of danger for which the warning bells have been issued in the media, time and again.

But how would a reckless teenager be confined when curiosity runs in their blood?

He checked his notification screen to realize his Google location was on.

'Usage of Search Engine Marketing for such a filthy scam?' He thought to himself.

Being a digital marketing professional, he was aware of the terms.

He scrolled through the website to read more about it. 'Joy Lightworks Organization': it was an NGO based in Mumbai.

The About section of the website began with a quote that read:

Dust that's settled over the books can be removed with hands. But can someone remove those older unsaid pains of the heart?

Ones who are bullied early on in life... experience life, friendships and even relationships abnormally. But what if we tell you, we help people heal and learn to re-live. Would you believe that?

Gaurav was amused. He scrolled down to read through the cases section.

Some cases:

There was a petite girl who had lice in her hair in childhood; A boy who had Dyslexia; and a girl with health issues who often fell sick which led to Asperger's Syndrome. All these people were bullied, mocked and belittled by the world at different times. When interviewed by us, they said they'd prefer strangers over people who knew them.

And there are many more people, who are affected a little too much by the jealousy, hatred, and the evil in the world. And give up on hope that there's any good left in the world.

How do we help?

We form a group of them. And mind you, they all are strangers and come from different parts of the country. They go to a hotel, securely booked by us. And have to greet each other to act like friends.

Above all, they ought to sit on the round table to share real incident stories from their life, those could be happy, sad or both. But real anecdotes, which shall be traced via a lie detector. Through those conversations, they have to find connection with one and other and return home after a long night out. After that, they'll be called a 'Joviour’, you get it? Joy Saviour = Joviour. We are smart, right?

Mesmerized by it all, he read further.

‘Why do we take such sessions?’

We take these efforts and make sure to involve the 'Joviours'. Through these social activities, they interact and learn to listen. They empathize with others, and learn they're not alone. That everyone has felt it at some point or the other. The very essence of these sessions is to learn the black and white nuances of life. We, however, don't promise to heal them. We believe that healing is a personal journey, we can only show them the path, they have to walk it on their own.

He clicked on 'Who can connect with us?' section of the website.

It read: Lonely people, like most of us. But the intensity with which they've experienced it. If it has washed them off any strength. We can help them find that light.

He felt too tired to read through the Testimonials and Pricing section. After such a striking realization piercing through him.

'What would be life for such people!' He pitied and thought to himself. Until he saw his open laptop screen, with a Facebook Account of 500 friends, and yet no one to seek advice from, for his little sister. He felt no different than one amongst many stuck in the same cyclone of this digital life.

Earlier, we had family outings. We took family photos over group selfies in the washroom mirror. Had grandparents to recite stories. And parental guidance seemed enough to do well in life. Strangers smiled back, and nosy neighbours would strike conversations after a long day, and yet, it didn’t seem annoying, did it?

And today, we need strangers for the same? Also, we will have to pay to laugh with people?

Our society created Old Age Homes first, and now these Friendship centres seem the future.

The modern, broken and feeble loneliness stared him back in the eye through his laptop's turned off screen. Most electric gadgets when turned off, become a black mirror. The black mirror which reflected the ugly reality of this society. Have we all humans lost the human touch?

Loneliness: was that the cost, this urban society pays for putting themselves in the cages of individualism and luxury?