Deep inside the U-shaped 1)complex of 2)Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)， the clock clacks against the heavy silence in 3)psychiatrist Manju Mehta’s 4)chamber. A mother sits huddled in front of her. “I want to say sorry for not listening to you，” she 5)stutters as she talks， her eyes 6)welling with tears. Neither she nor her husband had accepted Mehta’s diagnosis that behind her son’s falling grades and temper 7)tantrums lay a learning disability and severe 8)depression. “Conduct disorder is his way of gaining self-respect，” Mehta had told them. The parents， more interested in improving his school performance， had not 9)heeded the advice， “Don’t put pressure on him.” Just before the annual exams， he had suddenly turned over a new leaf： he was nice to everyone， listened to everything his parents said， met up with people he was fond of. Finally， one afternoon， he took his own life. “I 10)quit，” read the 11)chit lying on his bed.
Being a teenager has never been easy. But in the new millennium， amidst unprecedented prosperity， growing up seems to have become more 12)trying than ever for Indian teens. The 13)grim 14)epithet to their tormented lives is the suicide note. Sometimes they express an inability to cope with pressure， as in the case of a Delhi student who hanged himself from a ceiling fan by his mother’s sari. “Goodbye，” he wrote. “I can’t take the pressure any longer. I love my family and I hope they will understand.” Ever so often there is helplessness： “I am not doing well in exams，” wrote a girl from15)Chandigarh to her parents before she took her life， “I can’t even manage my own affairs. I’ve 16)frittered away my college fees on trivia. No one’s responsible for my death.”
In India， as many as 12.8 percent of adolescents now suffer from 17)psychiatric disorders， says the Indian Council of Medical Research. But what explains the high-levels of depression？ By every measure， urban children have much more—clothes， toys， 18)gadgets—than their parents， who were raised on post-Independence values of thrift and self-sacrifice， ever did. It’s a problem of plenty， say psychologists. Recent studies show that children who have been given too much too soon grow up to be adults who have difficulty coping with life’s disappointments.
“They have a distorted sense of 19)entitlement that gets in the way of success both in the workplace and in relationships，” says Dr. Gururaj， head of the department of 20)epidemiology at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMHANS) in21)Bangalore. “They often grow up to be self-centred and 22)self-absorbed， and those are mental-health risks.” A suicide survey which he conducted in 2004 found that 57 percent of youth suicides were sudden acts of frustration.
New India’s obsession with 23)fancy degrees and anxiety about the future is a real issue. A stream of such parents and children passes through city psychiatrist Aniruddha Deb’s chamber every year “before exams begin and after results are out”. “And they show the same psychological bent—fear of failure，” he says.