What is Loneliness, you may ask,?
Good question if you have never experienced loneliness
Never did you encounter a situation where there was no one
No one you could talk to, understand you, love you
You always had friends and family for company

Loneliness does not occur because you are alone
Loneliness occurs when no one understands you
When no one loves you, when you are treated with contempt
You can be alone and yet you are not lonely
Or you can be part of a large family, but completely isolated

Pankaj Udhas, the Ghazal  singer, says in one of his songs
" Koi nahi sunta jab tanhaiya bolti hai"
Tanhaiya is the Hindi word for loneliness
What he says is "No one listens when loneliness speaks"
Never a truer phrase I have heard

Loneliness is the solo traveller who cannot stop anywhere
As every stop has strangers, he cannot connect with
Loneliness is the tune you sing yourself
As no one else can understand it

Loneliness is walking along the road alone
Till you find someone who is also lonely
And who gives you "company"
Then loneliness says, "We part ways now"
For company and I can never be together
We are  the two sides of a coin that never meet.