New York Is One of the Loneliest Cities in America. One Woman Is Trying to Fix That.

Soumya Gupta at a recent meetup that she organized. (Credit: Jiwon Lee)

Three years ago, Soumya Gupta was on a plane to New York for the first time. After landing at John F. Kennedy Airport, Gupta texted the only person in the US at the time. A friend, who was also a new student at the School of Visual Arts, had arrived ten days before she did.

Hey, I’m here, would love to catch up, she sent.

The reply came quickly.

Oh, I actually left [the U.S.] because I didn’t like it.

What do you mean?

Yeah, I didn’t really have a good time, so I’m not going to continue in the program, and I am back in New Delhi.

What about being roommates? she wondered. What about helping each other?

The plans they had made to find housing together and help each other out had dissolved just like that. Gupta, 25 at the time, had studied abroad in Canada for a year and completed her undergraduate studies away from home, but she had always had friends with similar backgrounds. Nothing had prepared her to live alone in the country. Nothing had prepared her to live alone in a foreign country.

Now, Gupta is working on a project that connects people, called Yaar, meaning “friend” in Hindi, in her free time. Yaar connects newcomers with locals and people with similar mindsets in New York City, where 4 in 10 people report feeling lonely. The service has so far connected more than 30 people in three meetups. In hindsight, she says, the first person she met in the States planted the seeds for Yaar.

As a cab was driving Gupta away from the airport, she couldn’t stop thinking “Oh my gosh, look, I should just go back. I don’t want to be here.” At least a friend back in India shared a phone number of another graduate student at the school. Jet-lagged and anxious, Gupta texted this stranger at 6 a.m. to help her adjust to the city. He showed up at her hotel lobby at 8 a.m.

“He totally didn’t have to do it,’” Gupta recalled. She was grateful for the stranger’s willingness to help.

After getting coffee and going on a tour around the campus, he persuaded the fatigued Gupta to join a meetup with other newly admitted students later in the day. She could just hang out for 30 minutes and go, he said. Gupta hit it off with new friends and ended up wandering around Times Square until midnight. “All these guys are in the same boat. I could finally relax and feel more like ‘okay, I can do this,’” she said.

Yaar was first conceived as her thesis project for the Master of Fine Arts degree in design at SVA. Yaar, a three-in-one service, featured online chats, curated lists for exploring New York City, and gatherings. Gupta decided to combine the latter two.

In 2025, she held three meetings, including a bookstore crawl and brunch meetup in mid-November. It was also the first paid event, with a $15 ticket per person. “I’m still testing out the waters, like who is willing to come, and how much they are willing to pay from a business perspective,” Gupta said. This year, she plans to host seven to ten more events, one each month, as the weather gets warmer.

After work on a Friday before the event, Gupta checked the itinerary on foot. She walked to the three bookstores to make sure they weren’t too far from each other, and to collect footage for the Instagram preview. Saturday morning, she was the first one to arrive at the front of Strand bookstore.

At 11 a.m., four people, including Gupta, met inside the Strand bookstore. The plan for the day was to check out three bookstores located near the East Village area. At first, she had nerves, wondering how she’d make it work.

“Maybe 15, 20 minutes into it, it was just like organically happening,” Gupta said. On the walk to Three Lives, the second bookstore, the small group started sharing the best curry spots in Jackson Heights. Other than taking pictures and videos for the social media post, Gupta started blending into the small group by the time everyone arrived at the second location.

At Three Lives, the two designers, one artist, and a museum lover hovered over “The Creative Act,” a book written by a music producer for world-famous artists. The artist said it’s a must-read for any creative minds. Gupta already owned a hard copy of the book. The other designer, Varini Nathany, purchased the book on the spot.

“Another purpose of this is to connect people who are similar to each other. I feel like this was a great group where people were interested in art, books, stationery–all the same things,” Gupta said after the meetup. She sent participants feedback surveys and plans for the next meetup.

On the way back to the subway station, Gupta noticed a sunglass advertisement in SoHo. An Indian woman with wrinkles and greying hair gazed straight at the viewers, wearing a bright yellow sari.

“I’ve never seen an elderly woman featured in those kinds of ads,” Gupta said. She stopped and took several pictures of the advertisement while a group of tourists was there. They wanted to take a picture with the SoHo street in the background. Gupta now reads the city one layer deeper than a tourist would.