LIFE ON A FAST LANE.

I was shocked when Nidhi told me that 3 of her classmates had been rusticated from the school. I asked her again...”Are they suspended or rusticated?”  “Maa, they have been rusticated; they cannot attend the school and wait till you hear the reason.” Breaking the chairs, desks, creating ruckus was passé. What else could they have done? Nidhi said, “They were caught red handed try to steal the logo of a BMW car near the school, and they were in the school uniform when they did it.” I am shocked! The thefts of the logos from the Hi-end car models are on the rise in the city for past 6-7 months. But I always thought that crimes like these are committed by petty criminals or street kids. These are 14 year old boys from well to do families.  An original logo fetches anywhere from Rs.20, 000/- to Rs. 45,000/- depending on the maker of the car.  A criminal record at the age of 14? I am confounded!

One 14 year old, again Nidhi’s classmate, boasts that he is betting on-line for this ongoing ICC World Cup. He has already bet on various matches to the tune of Rs. 40,000/- to Rs.50,000/-. His parents are not aware of this. Where will he get so much money? What if he loses? And why?

My domestic help is from a rural village in Maharastra. She and her husband work here in Mumbai so that they can provide good education for their children back home. But, last week her son who is, again, 14 calls her and threatens to run away from home as he is not interested in studying!  They somehow convince him to come here to Mumbai. He has been here since a week and his demand is that he wants to see Mumbai. So, every day after slogging for long hours at 4 different houses, his mother takes him out to show the sights. He is holding his parents to ransom.

What is wrong with this generation? Is it the hormones?  Is it the peer pressure? What do they want to prove? It is not just in the urban areas, but kids in the rural areas too feel the same peer pressure. When things like this happen, usually it is the parents who are blamed. The kid has not had a proper upbringing they say. But, today the kids have every advantage in life.  Parents do indulge their kids. We as parents want to provide the best for our kids. But, where are we going wrong? There is no fixed rule for parenting. (This is one topic of healthy debate between me and my friend Mamatha.) There are a quite a few ‘hooka’ parlors near my residence. And, these places are visited mostly by kids who are between the age of 12 – 18 years, both boys and girls. The kids resort to stealing to fund their addictions….to look cool, be cool and act cool. Branded dress, branded footwear, branded shades, branded accessories & gadgets…the net worth of the person is determined by how brand savvy a person is!

I met my classmates after a long gap of 22 years. Those guys who were the backbenchers, who were considered trouble makers and naughty, are doing very well in life today. It surprised me!  Were these the same guys? Why just friends? This has happened within the family too. Guess, ‘TEENAGE’ is a phenomena across the generations.  Maybe, our kids will turn out to be OK too, but the vices committed in the teen years should not leave a permanent scar either on their or on their parents lives. At the end of the day, all we can do is pray and hope that our kids will turn out to be responsible and good adults.