“Sometimes, the loudest cries are the ones never uttered. Sometimes, the only place that feels safe is the one farthest from everyone else.”
The Rooftop
On a blistering summer morning at the teacher’s office, surrounded by distant sounds of students talking, yelling and learning, stands a little girl, in her 3rd grade, who hadn’t been to school for over a week. A fact that shocked her parents, who had no idea and had just learnt from her teacher across the table. They assumed she was going to school every day, as she always returned home alongside other children, her presence seemingly unquestioned. Yet, beneath this ordinary routine, a quiet fracture had formed.
The girl stood next to them in the room in utter silence and far away in her fear. She had been leaving the house each morning, pretending to go to school, but instead, she slipped away to the rooftop of the neighboring block. There, under the relentless sun, she spent her days alone, with her knees tucked to her chest, choosing solitude over the classroom, silence over conversation.
At first glance, this might seem like a simple act of defiance or childish rebellion. But if we step back and try to see the world through her eyes, the picture becomes far more complex, far more heartbreaking.
Imagine being eight years old and feeling so deeply uncomfortable, that you choose isolation over connection. Imagine the weight of not being able to say, “I don’t like school,” or “I’m struggling,” or even “I need help.” Instead, you find refuge on a rooftop, a place where you can be invisible and invulnerable, away from the noise and expectations. She wasn’t merely avoiding school; she was escaping a world that felt alien and unkind, a world in which she felt utterly alone.
Loneliness, especially in a child, is a paradox. It is the presence of people around you and yet the absence of anyone who truly understands. It is the ache of being unseen, unheard, and unacknowledged.
I know this story intimately because that little girl is someone very close to me, someone I love fiercely. Her silence was a language I had to learn to understand, her rooftop a metaphor for the distance between us that we had to bridge with patience, empathy, and love. The greatest lesson we learn as parents, or as human beings, is that the most important journey is the one we take to meet each other, not in the places we expect, but on the rooftops where we hide.
Rooftops Everywhere
This is not just a story in my family alone. Her rooftop was just one of countless silent refuges across the world, where millions retreat from a society that fails to truly get them.
Today. 3 out of 4 young adults battle with loneliness and anxiety, and find it increasingly difficult to make new friends. The world is getting lonelier as early as in our teens and the time we sped without selves only keeps growing as we age.
Here is the loneliness graph by National library of medicine.
The Problem
Loneliness is as lethal as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and it costs $1.2 trillion* in global productivity annually”
Source*: US Surgeon General
Today, loneliness not only affects the young adults, but it’s an epidemic that we all live with. Loneliness is not the absence of people, but the absence of understanding. The problem of not having people who get us, understand us, without judgement.
It might feel like the world has gotten so small with the technology and social economic conditions we have today, but the real question is, have we grown any closer because of it?
Even though we are social animals right from our DNA, we find it extremely hard to start a conversation with others, or discover others due to fear of judgement, social anxiety, unwanted incoming anger or rudeness. We’ve all experienced this feeling and have decided to never initiate a conversation with someone even if internally we wanted to. Overthinking everything. And the internet, the way it has been so far, and the social media culture has not made it any easier. We’d rather doom scroll at orchestrated highlight reels than to talk to someone IRL and feel more comfortable, more understood.
First Principles Thinking
Meeting new people and making friends shouldn’t be hard. Afterall, it’s in our nature to be social. Helloha is here to tackle this exact problem. Lots of students, young adults travel to new cities and countries to make personal progress. We’re surrounded by people yet find it hard to belong. And the only way to battle this loneliness today is either by ourselves using self help apps like Calm, Headspace (paradoxical to solve loneliness problems by yourself, alone) or find yourself a therapist, but that can really feel clinical.
And Reddit, has millions venting their thoughts and commenting away trying to make connections but unable to build any meaningful connections. The fundamental problem with building trust in a world of usernames is that texting dehumanizes our conversations and makes us just keyboard warriors. It’s hard to bring empathy to a conversation when you don’t know if you are talking to a 17 year old or 40 year old man pretending to be 17.
The ability to meet people face to face is vital and hear their voice and passion is vital to building trust, building deeper relationships.
What makes a conversation easy? Meeting someone new and starting a conversation is easier when you know,
- What you have in common.
- What you’re going to talk about
- That you both are here for the same reason
- That it’s safe
- It helps if you’re in the same age group too.
Helloha, with AI at the helm, takes all of this into account and makes meeting new people easier, so you feel happier and less alone. Helloha AI not only helps you with conversation starters and matches you with others just like you, who actually get you, it is also Introvert-Ambivert-Extravert friendly with AI coach/guide/assistance depending on where you are comfortable to start your social journey.
Our Vision
A world without loneliness. Where no one hides on the rooftop, and kindness is the norm.
Our vision is to eradicate loneliness by helping anyone to connect with others who get them, without any barriers in language, or culture or region, and help the world understand each other better.
The world becomes a kinder place when everyone feels more understood. This is the world we are building with Helloha.
Join the movement: Be the bridge.
But we can’t do it alone. This isn’t just about an app; it’s about a movement to create a more connected, compassionate world. We believe that even the smallest conversation can spark a connection, and every connection makes our world a little less lonely.
Share your story. Invite a friend. Be the person who reaches out, who initiates the conversation, and builds the bridge.
Join us in our journey in building a kinder world, one conversation at a time.
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