At 12, Arjun Bajaj would sneak out at night in his father's Maruti, driving it around the colony. At 13, he was riding motorbikes (somebody else's) on the highway. Today at 17, he plays hooky from school to race automobiles in the countryside. He and his friends have their own grand prix. They have driven all the way to Jaipur and back the same day. "It's a thrill, nothing else," he says. From Arjun's failure to take up science after the Class X board exams, his father (a middle-level company executive) saw other failures multiply -- failure to speak clearly, failure to stand up straight, failure to get up in the morning, failure in just about everything.

"We don't understand each other, we hate each other," says Arjun. "I'm not career-driven, at least not like my father. He's worked all his life. What does he have to show for it? I'll make money my way, with automobiles." Arjun is uncomfortable at home. He's happiest with a beer in one hand, the steering wheel in the other, his friends following him in other cars. "We meet every day at 6 p.m., we cruise till around 10 p.m. and then slowly head back." The latest friction point between him and his parents: bungee jumping. He wants to do it, they've freaked out. So what's going to happen? "I'll do it even if it kills me."

Parents today just can't figure out their kids and often paint scathing portraits of them. "For my son, Kalahandi is a place in Egypt and happiness is a pair of Reebok shoes," muses one parent in Delhi. "Alienation is increasing in this era of rapid social change," says Bhagat. Old value systems are crumbling. "Loyalty, fidelity, honesty -- these are words that don't fit into my generation," admits Hashmi. Yet, there seems to be an acute sense of loss. So what are the New-age values? "Well ... better work ethics." And "Get that deal, no matter what". Or "Don't postpone gratification. Do it today and you should have got rewarded yesterday".

Compared to any other generation in this century, children today experience sex, drugs, "the good things in life" at a much younger age. A group of researchers in Panjab University recently carried out a mental-health study that showed "sensation-seeking" to be high among children today. If Bertrand Russell talked about "postponing gratification" as a theory that keeps society sane, today's youth prowl tirelessly for thrills, always worried about that dreaded state of mind: boredom. "The search for stronger and stronger stimuli is almost like an addiction," says Parikh.

Alcoholism, in fact, has touched a new high with the current generation. Many schoolteachers and therapists point to the fact that children are falling prey to drugs and alcohol at a much younger age. The yearning for a "high", for instance, started early with Raman Kohli, son of a senior income tax official who started gulping down bottles of Phensydyl cough syrup at 14. Today, at 16, he visits a psychiatrist who is trying to help him get over his 14-bottle-a-day addiction. Schoolteachers say there has been a threefold increase in truancy, drug-taking and booze binges among youngsters, especially among 10th and 11th graders. "It even happens in school parties," explains Thomas. "Bottles are smuggled in and we sometimes have to ask the parents to come and take their children home."

Shekhar Nedungadi, 17, sits immobile in one room of a grey flat in a Mumbai suburb. His family hovers around tentatively, but disappears when he has "that gleam" in his eyes. They've seen it often: there is an argument and he turns violent. He has hit his father twice.

Son of an upper division clerk with the Maharashtra Government, Shekhar till a few years ago was an "exemplary" student. Then his father got in the way. A self-made man, he had big dreams for his son. "He has laid down values for his son, but doesn't follow them himself," says the psychiatrist now treating Shekhar. Arrogant and stern, the father used to hold Shekhar out of the window of his second floor flat as punishment for small acts of mischief. But there was also a pat on the back and a gift if he excelled in his studies.

One day, something snapped as his father was comparing him to another classmate -- someone who had outscored him by a few marks. Suddenly, Shekhar flew into a rage, smashed a few windows and when his father raised a hand, he lashed out at him. Ask him why, and Shekhar answers falteringly: "Everyone tries to put me down." Today, he hardly goes to college and it is his father who walks around from room to room in a daze of depression.

Anger is the flip side of depression. The smallest things tap into the hostility of this generation. "I didn't get movie tickets that night. When the parking attendant threw back the Rs 10 note saying he had no change, I lost it," says Sunil Thomas, 23, who was arrested for assault in Delhi. Psychiatrists say the new, disturbing trend is that violence is spreading within the family. "They actually hit out at their parents, especially the mothers," says Pearl Drego of the Transactional Analytic Centre for Education, Research and Training, Delhi. In a few cases, the violence was so intense that the parents moved out, leaving the kids alone. "I know two sets of parents who left their kids with relatives because they couldn't handle it," adds Dharmaraj. Worse, this anger is getting channelled into crime. Most police forces today say there is a need to start crime counselling in schools and colleges. In fact, Delhi Police Commissioner T.R. Kakkar recently wrote to school principals expressing concern over this phenomenon. Says DCP (West Delhi) Rajesh Malik: "We see many more instances of thefts by middle-class and lower middle-class youth today."

Where is this anger coming from? Mainly from the tremendous pressure to succeed. Ambitions soar and images of making it big (cars, exotic holidays) constantly play on the mind, but when failure strikes, most can't handle it. "Though they may not know it then, it (failure) ruins their life," says Kapadia. The other reason, psychiatrists feel, is the "my world is me" syndrome. In a fast changing world, youth are obsessed with themselves in a sort of reckless frenzy of "doing what you want" without actually thinking about it. There are no icons and nothing is sacred -- not even parents. Sudhir Kakar, a psychoanalyst, draws from popular cinema to illustrate the point: "Bachchan's violence was against society's wrongs. Today Shah Rukh Khan's violence is much more individualistic. The madness in Shah Rukh Khan's eyes emanates purely from a selfish reason of not getting what he wants."

Neera Makhijani is 22. Her sister Ruchira is 18. But for Neera, who now works in a private company, a gulf of incomprehension separates the two. "For my sister life is an endless party. She has no plans beyond the next day, just fun. The rest of us don't exist for her," says Neera.

If the previous generation took the wrong turns, they did so knowingly. The dos and don'ts of life were clearly sign-posted. This generation isn't so lucky: the road goes off in multiple, unmarked directions. There is no right way. Choices come at a much earlier age, flinging them on to the cacophonic highways of life even before they've learned to steer. "It is this void of uncertainty that brings out their dark side," says family therapist Dr Vimla Lal.

But just as the dark side peeps out from under their masks of bravado, there's yet another one of determination firming up just below. Torch bearers to the next millennium, this generation has the drive and single-minded determination to knock down the hurdles on the way to their chosen goals. The mixed legacies of the past off-loaded without remorse. Like Atlas shrugging off a toy globe.

(Some names have been changed to protect identities.) 

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