Today’s teenagers are lavish spenders….

The spending limits of middle class to upper middle class teenagers have taken off dramatically in the last 20 years. These days, even high school students yearn for a credit card. I have heard a couple of cases where parents give their kids, just to give an example, Rs 2000/- as pocket money for the month, but they have the audacity to spend Rs 1500/- out of that on shopping in the first two days. Hence the yearning need for a credit card, which never has to be replenished, or so the young guns believe.

This is atrocious, in very mild terms. Some kids have two mobile phones these days – out of that one BlackBerry is a certainty. There are others who are obsessed with clothes and believe that if their friends buy a top or jeans, then it does not look good if they do not follow suit. Beauty treatments are also a common avenue to splash money for teens. It may seem risible to many that we did not even have a watch when we were in high school, forget other luxuries. I remember mom gifting me my first watch after I passed ICSE exams.

We used to go to school in public transport in the mid 1990s when the bus fare from Gariahat (my house) to Chittaranjan Hospital (Don Bosco Park Circus bus stop) was Re 1. Dad used to give me a five-rupee note everyday, and I used to save Rs 3 out of that. With those savings I managed to save Rs 2500/- after three years, which is still deposited in a post office account till date with accumulated interests. Today’s kids cannot even think of that kind of disciplined spending and saving. Youngsters today believe that a swipe of a card can buy them anything. Everybody is brand conscious, want to show off and be popular via the short cut. They do not have the time or the will to think how difficult it is to earn even a dime these days.

Affluent parents even go to the extent of providing Rs 10,000/- to Rs 15000/- as monthly pocket money to their kids. That is almost the amount that our PhD scholars receive as stipend in IITs and other renowned research institutes, after they get through a Masters Degree, the NET exams and a thousand grinding interviews. That is the harsh and crude reality of modern India.

This is the worst possible upbringing that any parent can provide to their child. The poor kids lose the ability to fight through a crisis in life because of such over-pampering. Unfortunately such kids, lacking balance in their approach to life, are also a part of the face of an Emerging India.