u/Both-Improvement-486

I found this beautiful little book café called “Kitabi Angan”. Cozy lights, books everywhere, warm vibe, the kind of place where you imagine someone silently reading Murakami in a corner while another person writes poetry pretending they’re not heartbroken.

I walked in thinking — finally, my people.

Bro.

People were literally shouting. HOWLING. Discussing college gossip like they were at a chai tapri outside engineering college.

No one was reading. No one was writing. Everyone was just… loud 😭

And I sat there wondering — does Ahmedabad even have a place where readers and writers quietly exist? Where people discuss books, ideas, life, weird thoughts, maybe even AI and how the world is changing?

Like… a place where people are building, reading, thinking. Not just networking or making reels.

In a city this big, are there spaces where curious people actually meet?

Or are we all just sitting alone in cafés pretending they’ll magically become our tribe?

Ahmedabad folks — where do thoughtful, slightly lonely, curious people go?

I don’t know if this is an Ahmedabad thing, an adulthood thing, or just a me thing.

But lately, this city feels incredibly lonely.

Which is weird because Ahmedabad is full of people.

Crowded malls. Packed cafes. Traffic everywhere. Families out for dinner. Couples at every coffee shop. Friend groups who somehow still manage to meet every week.

And then there’s me.

Working. Coming home. Sleeping. Repeating.

Some days I go to malls for no reason.

Not to shop.

Just to be around people.

I’ll sit with a coffee and watch strangers.

Families laughing. Couples arguing over small things. Teenagers being loud for no reason. Old people quietly sitting together.

And I don’t know why, but sometimes it hits me really hard.

Like… everyone seems to have their people.

Their routine.

Their circle.

Someone to text.

Someone waiting for them.

And somewhere along the way, life became work calls, targets, exhaustion and “we should catch up soon” texts that never happen.

The loneliest feeling isn’t being alone.

It’s when your life is full of people but somehow nobody really knows what’s going on in your head.

My wife works different hours, work has become more hectic than ever, and most days feel like I’m just surviving the week.

I don’t even know what I’m looking for while sitting in a mall watching people.

Maybe comfort.

Maybe connection.

Maybe proof that life still has softness in it.

Ahmedabad feels strange that way.

It’s such a warm city on the outside.

But if you don’t actively have your people, it can feel painfully isolating.

Just wanted to ask —

Does anyone else here feel this way?

Or am I just going through something?

I visit Palladium oftentimes and have noticed people carrying their most expensive looks here, looks like a fashion parade. May it be someone coming from a not so well to do background or someone who’s doing well.

The question is why? And why when you go to a mall?

I’ve seen this in Mumbai as well, but not really anywhere else in India.

Has anyone else noticed this?