A vague notion of Indian youth. There was in our mind a picture of a somewhat boring, conformist young man.

. He is obedient and traditional. He wants a home, a car, a wife and a couple of EMIs as soon as possible. By the time he is in his mid- to late-20s, he wants to settle down.

 But surely this was an incomplete picture since we had what was largely a Mumbai/Delhi perspective. Every generation has to be viewed in its context. The generation that grew up during independence had a different fire in them; they wanted to build India from the scartch into a model country.

 The 1970s had a cynical, depressed generation that fled the country in droves since they saw no future here. The ones who remained idolised an angry Amitabh Bachchan.

 By that reckoning this one has the best shot at the future. Its DNA was coded post-liberalisation. It has grown up with more choice, more access to information, more money and more opportunities than any other generation of Indians before it. It has also grown up with the knowledge that life has much more to offer, the possibilities are endless.

 All they have to do is stretch their minds to discover new worlds. Almost half the 5,485 young people surveyed across 15 cities such as Kochi, Jaipur or Bangalore are willing to do a job that is boring if they earn enough money.

 Over half are religious (nobody is questioning God) and more than 72 per cent would happily marry a person their parents chose. (Whatever happened to falling in love?) In fact, more than half want to get married. Mind you, this is a sample where the mean age is 20 years, so they are pretty young to be making up their minds on this. They are very close to their parents.

 More than three-fourths make their career choices with the help of their parents and they believe in the joint family. Some things, of course, havent changed, such as the desire to go abroad. So, in spite of the promise of India, about 56 per cent want to settle abroad. Or the angst of simply being young and gawky.

 More than three-fourths worry about what people think of them, of the impression they create when they walk into a room, and so on and so forth.

 The picture that emerges of the people who represent the future of India is of a traditional, albeit confident generation. None of the dilemmas of identity that haunted previous generations, haunt them, nor is there any moral ambiguity about anything. Pre-marital sex and living together is taboo, so is smoking and drinking.

 Almost all of these questions have the respondents saying nyet with an overwhelming majority. They are Indians through and through for better or for worse. What makes Indias youth worth studying is evident; one of the worlds hottest economies, a billion people, roughly half of them between the ages of 15 and 29 years, and rising purchasing power.

 It is a demographic gold mine for marketers and a case-study-in-progress of democratic capitalism. There is much happening to make us a happier, more chilled-out country. Why, then, are our young turning into somewhat moralistic people with limited ambitions?

 There is no harm in being anti-smoking, antidrinking or traditional. That it is to the credit of their parents that this generation is less rebellious and bonds better with its elders. And maybe that is true. Maybe this, then, is this generations way of rebelling.

 The fact is that in spite of the malls, media and the positive cheer surrounding us, India remains a poor, half-illiterate, difficult-to-livein country. Getting the basics, a home in an area with decent electricity, clean surroundings, water supply, schools and so on, in any city is still a difficult and expensive business. Earlier generations spent decades trying to get just these.

 The young see no virtue in huffing and puffing over what they think are hygiene factors. They want to get them out of the way before they deal with some of lifes more interesting pleasures foreign holidays or alternative careers. So, they are alright doing a boring job (how interesting can call centres be?), not working too hard (over one-third do not think hard work is essential for success), and making money.

 This is a self-centred, goal-fixated generation that will, with full comprehension and at any price, secure its future. The sacrifices and martyrdom for a cause is not for them, unless it means signing an online petition or holding some candles (though 30 per cent of them are keen on a career in politics).

 No rough backpacking or exploring the world for them. This generation seems happier achieving the status quo their parents did, only faster. Their enthusiasm for life seems very rooted to the here and now, and the immediately achievable. Or, is it that people simply avoid telling the truth when they answer questions in a survey.

Youth Marketers Finding My Space

Marketers are trying to connect with the young in their new media spaces.

 Early this year, Nokia (India) tied up with ACNielsen to carry out an exercise in webnography. The idea was to gauge the post-launch reactions to its latest Nokia fashion series 7260 and 7280. The survey studied 38 Indian bloggers, zeroed in on after sifting through several blogs listed on Blogstreet, Indibloggers and other blog listings.

 The bloggers were chosen to fit one of two profiles college going youngsters ( 17-21) and young working adults (21-25). The objective: to get feedback from high net worth, young, tech-savvy consumers from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai. While the webnography confirmed Nokias offline research results, it was different from the offline survey in three ways.

 It took a week of blog trawling to arrive at the same results that took two months through traditional methods. The data was more vivid and textured, and much more heartfelt. It discovered among youngsters a common Im on my own trauma and, hence, a greater need for communication insights it did not get through the traditional means. It proved to be an effective way of tapping into Nokias target group.

 A large number of youngsters found online were much more into technology and were leading edge consumers. Of course, Nokias need to connect with the young is, perhaps, more desperate. It has just seen has-been rival Motorola walk away with over 10 per cent of its market share, largely on the basis of its youth targeting.

 They may not be doing it for the same reasons, but HLL, Levis, Coca-Cola, ReeboK, Pepsi almost every major consumer goods company are attempting to plug into the world that the young in India and globally have created for themselves. This could be on blogs, in chatrooms, on social networking sites, on podcasts or mobile screens, in multiplexes and coffee shops, or among a dozen other places.

 Sometimes they connect, like in the case of Sunsilks gangofgirls.com from HLL. Sometimes they dont. Wal-Marts attempt at a social networking site in the US was booed at by youngsters for trying to be cool. There are no clear numbers on how much marketers spend on targeting the young, or how much of that is going to new media spaces.

 But for a perspective, think of this: five years back, almost everybody looked for a job, a home, a partner or friends offline. Today, young people, who form two-thirds of the 37-odd million surfers in India, do all of this and more online. As a result, almost three-fourths of the classified advertising in English newspapers has shifted online.

 If you take all forms of online advertising (search engine, display, classifieds), the total is closer to Rs 400 crore. A bulk of this goes to targeting the young. Ditto for mobile phones. The Rs 2,300-crore value-added services market talks almost exclusively to young people, who form roughly half the 110 million cellphone users.

 Many others may buy music, ringtones or messages for cricket scores, but it is the young and their pursuit of what is hot that this market thrives on. The attempt to reach young people is as old as consumer goods marketing. It has been the common element driving the growth of companies such as Unilever, Nokia, Motorola and Nestle, among a hundred others.

Some things, however, have changed. This generation is more elusive. And they are spoilt for choice. So they spend less time on traditional media such as TV and print but more on the mobile phone, the Internet or in the mall.

 More importantly, unlike previous young generations, they have extremely short attention spans, do 3-4 things at one time (blog, chat, listen to radio and keep the TV on) and are (like most generations) very influenced by their peers.

 But perhaps, for the first time, the young in India now have money either because their middle-class parents are doing well enough to give them lots of pocket money or, because they are serving counters behind pizza parlours or working in call-centres.

 BPO employees, about 300,000 of them aged 18 to 24 are a great case in point. They work evenings and nights and, therefore, the prime time TV phenomenon completely passes them by. That is 300,000 people who miss TV ads, assuming of course that they do not watch TV in the day. Most usually, do not read newspapers much.

 They prefer hanging out online or at malls or any other place to staying inside single TV homes where their parents can watch what they are watching. Like all youngsters, they want privacy. And that is what every new media option is offering them.

 There is no pattern, no method in what is happening. All that can be fathomed is that marketers are putting their time, money and efforts to figuring out these new media spaces; then they are trying to wriggle their way into these spaces; having done that, they are attempting to make their connect as personal and interactive as possible.

 Much of this marketing effort acts either as a tool for plain promotion or for research and feedback. It is not expected to be a stimuli for sales, as of now. However, several interesting experiments are happening in the process and, perhaps, pushing the envelope on the possibilities of marketing.

Finding New Hangouts, Getting Into Them

Take blogs and social networking sites such as Orkut.com and MySpace.com. These have completely changed the way people connect online. They create a sense of community among users and are virtual hang-out joints a place where youngsters spend several hours of their day. And by their very nature, social networks have large user bases.

 Orkut, for example, has nearly 2.5 million Indian users on its network (of a total 30 million). And there are plenty of other social networks out there too Gazzag, Hi5, Facebook... the list goes on. For youngsters, it is their personal space one they turn to for making friends, seeking advice or simply hanging out.

 From a marketers perspective, online communities do more than create brand recall. For one, prolonged use will create brand loyalty (several girls on HLLs Gangofgirls do not use other networking sites). Two, it offers marketers a chance to have a one-on-one dialogue with users, build a relationship and tap into their psyche.

 So, across the world, marketers are now trying to get into social networking sites. It explains why Google paid a fortune to be the exclusive provider of text-based advertising and keyword targeted ads through its AdSense programme on MySpace.com as well as many other sites on Fox Interactive Medias network.

 Much of the valuation game for online or mobile properties in the US is driven by one simple fact the audiences are shifting there. Therefore, the ad dollars (about $15 billion of it in 2006) too have shifted. The US, for instance, has 12 million bloggers. For typical youth brands like MTV and CocaCola, their online communities play a significant role in their marketing campaigns.

 That is what most major marketers in India reckon will happen here too on the Internet, since much of the Indian action runs parallel to the global one. In June 2006, HLL, the 11,000-crore FMCG major created gangofgirls.com, an online community to connect with young women. It has identified key topics important to this group fashion, job hunts, having fun, emotional bonding, gossip, etc.

 The site offers expert advice on image makeovers, lists out job opportunities and allows them to form gangs so they can connect with other girls. One of the most popular feature on Gangofgirls is the Makeover Machine. It allows members to experiment with different styles and designs, virtually. That means they can try out new looks without spending real time and money.

 For HLL, the move is working almost 100,000 registrations in five months. That is marketing heaven in this fickle target group. One, because young girls and users of Sunsilk products are connecting to the brand directly.

 Two, it is getting through features like Makeover Machine a direct insight into what girls are seeking to change about their appearance. For a company that sells a range of personal care and cosmetic brands, it is a great research tool. Then there is SMS, retail outlets, college fests and dozens of other spaces through which marketers are trying to reach the young.

 Reebok India ran a campaign called Click for Kicks in December 2005, around the US National Football League (NFL) jerseys . It placed cutouts of American athletes in its stores and people could get photos clicked with them. Within six hours these were then put up online. About 20,000 people had their pictures clicked.

 Retail chains such as Caf Coffee Day (CCD) or Barista routinely run promos centered around the mobile phone. Of its total 140 outlets, Barista has Wif-Fi enabled 28; it is planning to enable more in the future.

 Since more youngsters are spending more time online and lots of young working adults own laptops, this is Baristas way of saying, Im giving you free Internet, so stay for longer. And while you are here, you might as well have another cup of coffee.

 As youth brands such as Barista or MTV build stronger communities, non-youth brands are finding it worth their while to partner with them in order to plug into the segment. ABN Amro has tied up with Barista to give out branded cards that consumers can use to collect loyalty points and rewards. Citibank also has a similar tie-up with MTV for a special credit card that offers discounts and free entries at pubs and restaurants.

 HLLs Pepsodent recently launched a whitening pack aimed at teenagers and young working adults. The latest TV ads focus on the coffeedrinking culture among youngsters and as an extension of that, Pepsodent (which has targeted children so far) has tied up with CCD. Consumers who buy Pepsodents whitening pack can win free coffee vouchers.

 And CCD will give away brochures on Pepsodent at all its outlets. But the way marketers use the two the new media spaces and the traditional is an interesting sidelight. Lee Jeans is using print media to promote Lee Lounge, its online social community, and WAP site for mobile phones.

 For us, traditional media has started taking a backseat to our other marketing initiatives in online, mobile and on-ground activities, says Priya Sanghvi, director (marketing), Lee. The company spends 8 to 10 per cent of its sales revenues on marketing, and less than a third of this goes to print. The rest is spent on outdoor and other marketing strategies.

 This also means, of course, that traditional media is not quite as irrelevant when it comes to this particular target group. In fact, many youth media brands such as MTV work across the spectrum with marketers who want to reach MTVs audience.

 It collaborates with Barista, PVR Cinema and INOX, and has over 600 touch points across the country, including over 75 college campuses. We want to be not just a media partner, but also a marketing partner, says Aditya Swamy, vice-president (marketing), MTV India.

Getting Personal
Axe, the deo-fragrance brand from HLL, partnered with Google in March to drive users to its online advertising. The Come to Axeland campaign was built around a fantasy land that an Axe consumer could visit and be a part of by registering. Axe used Googles Ad Words to target consumers who were searching for topics similar to the brand values.

 While Ad Words accounted for 13 per cent of all impressions (pages read) for the online campaign, it delivered 37 per cent of clickthroughs (people clicking on the ad and entering Axeland). The site received 18,000 visits and close to a thousand registrations in a single day. This is the second thing that marketers are doing, focussing their effort much better.

 Much of new media allows contextual advertising. That means the marketer can get the consumer in the right frame of mind to receive his brand, because it is related to what hes searching for. When a user clicks on your ad, it is already an expression of intent, says Manish Agarwal, vice-president (marketing), Rediff.

 Mobile aggregator OnMobile has built a database of mobile user profiles based on buying behaviour, across the different telecom operators it does business with. It tracks the type of ringtones downloaded by a user in the last few months, and accordingly sends out SMSes offering downloads. Someone who has downloaded ringtones of Salaam Namaste and Kal Ho Na Ho is more likely to download KANK ringtones.

 Earlier, we would send SMSes blindly, and many treated it as spam, says Arvind Rao, CEO, OnMobile. With this initiative, it takes fewer SMSes to get a larger proportion of people to respond. Rao reckons the efficiency has increased five-fold.

 It will soon launch an m-Commerce initiative using profile-targeting methods, where users will be able to view the best deals on Mp3 players, cellphones and digicams, and buy them instantly using their cellphones. You could argue, of course, that much of this is with reference to everyone who may be online or on a mobile phone. What is the youth connect on?

 But if you accept the argument, though the statistics for this are hard to come by, that more young people hang out online or tend to use value-added phone services, then much of this targeting makes sense. Also, remember that the older audience (late 20s onwards) is much more stable.

 So if they are online, they will tend to be on one or two sites; if they are on TV, it will be just 3-4 channels they will stick to. Getting their attention is not the marketers dilemma. It is getting to them before they hit that age group that causes all the problems. Maybe it is time someone set up a social networking site for marketers stressed out from trying to crack the young. Wonder who would advertise on that?

Youth Mobile Upwardly Mobile

Cellphone companies captured young Indias potential. Other marketers should take note.

 Mere paas gaadi hai, bangla hai, daulat hai... tumhare paas kya hai? Mere paas latest mobile hai. You know the type. Youngest kid in the office, but the guy with the coolest cell phone. And not necessarily funded by Daddy Big Bucks.

 I blew my entire salary on this phone is an increasingly common story. Yet, there is no permanent purchase satisfaction. The owner of a Nokia N70 is already eyeing an N91. The term upwardly mobile has acquired a whole new meaning; the wheel has turned full circle.

 The cellphone started life in this country as a status symbol, became a utility, and now its once again symbolic of your status in life. More so for the young. It is also a metaphor for the restless nature of youth change becoming the only constant.

 Wasi Ansari started using a cellphone four years ago, when he was in his second year of college. The first handset I bought was a second hand Ericsson GA628 for Rs 2,500. I gave it away because it was no better then a cordless phone. I had to upgrade. Since then, he has owned eight different handsets, four he managed to lose and one got stolen.

 On one hand, Wasi is sheepish about being so careless. When I think of all these phones and the amount of money that I spent on them, it feels terrible, he says. But it also feels OK because I think that this is the reason that I am using a N91 today. Wasi may be one of a tiny minority who can be so blas he can afford it.

 But the average Anand and Aarti also satisfy their wanderlust. They change screensavers and ringtones, if not handsets. Today, when a cellphone rings in Caf Coffee Day, a dozen hands reach for the hip pocket. This was not always the scene earlier. The cellphone-toting teen we now accept as normal did not exist less than four years ago.

 In January 2003, India had just 10 million mobile subscribers. By the end of that year, the number stood at 28 million. Today, it is 110 million and counting. So, how did cellphones wriggle their way into the hearts and minds of young India? And could there be lessons in that success story for other companies trying to connect with that elusive animal called youth?

 The most obvious answer is: pricing. In January 2003, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India made incoming calls free. Then Reliance entered the market; GSM fought back with lower prices and aggressively pushed pre-paid cards. Cheap handsets became available and everyone from plumbers to pesky 16-yearolds joined the party.

 But it is not that simple. Rs 330, the minimum monthly pre-paid card at the time, was no big deal for a working young adult. Or, even the student with a part-time job. But a large population of teens was and continues to be funded by parents. And Rs 7,000 a year (airtime charges + a basic Rs 3,000 handset) is money a middle class family thinks twice about.

 A conversation circa 2003 went something like this: Teen: Mom, I need a cellphone. Mom: I dont think so. Teen: But Aparna has one. Mom: Aparna is a spoilt brat Look, I will think about it, maybe next year.

 Then, parent bumps into Aparnas mother at the sabzi mandi and there is a conversation about how there is so much peace of mind now that beti has a cellphone. I mean, what if there is an emergency. And so many times children are kept back late in tuitions... Aha! A perfectly rational reason to buy your kid a cellphone without seeming like an overindulgent parent.

 It is a different thing that while parents may feel a sense of security in knowing where their kids are, they actually have less of an idea than ever before. The cellphone actually accords unprecedented privacy, especially to young women. The days of paranoid papas vetting all incoming calls are gone forever.

 Luckily for young people, parents did not wisen up before it was too late. As more teens got cellphones, peer pressure became the prime motivation to join the connectivity club. A study by the Market Analysis and Consumer Research Organisation in Mumbai in April-May 2004 found that 70 per cent of respondents aged 15-24 cited, everybody around me has one as the major reason for purchasing a cellphone.

 The herd mentality is an inherent part of teenage life. But few marketers have been able to create that gotta have it feeling. It is nice to have a pair of Nikes, yet an unbranded but good-looking Made in Thailand will do just as well for the average teen. Of course, it is not entirely their fault.

 The world has changed and so has what is cool and iconic. For an earlier generation, clothing and fast food brands were badges. Now, technology occupies a much larger mind space, says Lloyd Mathias, marketing director, Motorola.

 That was one of the reasons for Mathias to shift to Motorola from Pepsi after a long association with the archetypal cool company. What Mathias did was apply many of the youth marketing ideas he internalised at Pepsi.

 For one, be different. Faced with a market dominated by Nokia users, Motorola appealed to the audience to make an active choice and stand out among ones peers. That need to be provocative resulted in the widely noticed Abhishek Bachchan vs Razr V3 campaign. Simultaneously, Motorola rolled out a slew of models at more affordable price points.

 The company worked closely with carriers to create attractive bundled offers and even tied up with GE Money to introduce mobile financing. Repayment is over a 9-12 month period, with minimum documentation requirement only ID and proof of address. Today, Nokia remains the dominant brand with around 66 per cent market share.

 But according to the third quarter results released by Motorola, the company is now in solid No. 2 position in India, with a market share of approximately 10 per cent. Here is the point marketers need to note. Price, advertising, promotion and distribution played a key role in Motorolas success story. But at the heart of Motorolas look, Im different positioning, lay a product with a difference.

 Its Razr phones were sleeker and better looking. Tweaking the marketing took the brand from object of desire status to attainable. The question is: How many companies outside the digital domain try to achieve object of desire status in the first place? Most are happy offering and then heavily advertising a slight cosmetic change.

 So, a toothpaste will tweak the way it smells, or add an ingredient, or change its packaging or endorser. The advertising implies that using the brand is an important element in attaining social success. The reality is quite different. While young people may be loyal to certain brands, the importance of toothpaste as a category in their life is declining.

 Brushing your teeth is a necessary evil nothing more, nothing less. Must the toothpaste manufacturer shrug, Well, can I do anything about that and watch helplessly from the sidelines? The answer is both yes, and no. On the one hand, the mobile is a unique and complete world in itself.

 One with physical form and virtual depth. Couple that with portability and you have a product that is so personal, it is almost like a part of your inherent self. The digital is our new mental model of the world, says Santosh Desai, President, McCann-Erickson (India). Virtual is reality.

 The sight of a group of friends sitting in a coffee shop absorbed in SMS-ing people not physically present instead of enjoying the present company is a common one. So yes, a bike can work on its looks and improve power, speed, or fuel efficiency. Beyond that, it remains constrained by its real world existence. But must it? Nothing stopped the bike from becoming a Bikeman with music on board.

 And the toothpaste guys why can they not come up with a teeth-cleaning gum? Why are they OK with Wrigleys Orbit occupying that space? The mobile phone, on the other hand, has no problem invading other territory and annexing it. Going by conventional wisdom, phone companies should have stopped at improving voice clarity and enhancing looks.

 But they never thought of themselves as merely a phone. Instead of waiting for someone to express the desire for a service called SMS or a camera embedded into a phone, someone just went ahead and invented it. Part of the reason the mobile maintains its cool is the scorching pace the industry has set in terms of innovation.

 We are used to the idea of a world where change happens in long cycles, says Desai. The Internet, and more so, the mobile, give us a sense that the world needs to update itself constantly. Even iconic tech products such as the iPod are quick to keep reinventing themselves. Before the dust settled on the original, you had a Nano, a Shuffle, and then video versions.

 Why? Because refuse to update, and you may die. The bottom line: all companies will have to invest more in R&D. And also think beyond the narrow definition of their core business.

 As virtual world offerings get more exciting, the real world can either throw up its hands and say, I give up, or take up the challenge and find new ways of becoming relevant to the young persons life. And there are brands in India that have made the transition.

 Yash Raj Films has moved from naris in chiffon saris to biker chicks and dudes. Titan revitalised its Fastrack brand, while Brylcreem went from grease for balding uncles to gel for the new generation. But all these brands and others that have not been as successful in their youth thrust must keep pushing the envelope.

 The term mobile happens to be associated with a technological device, but mobility lies at the core of what it means to be young. Even mobile phone operators are learning that the hard way. Reliance CDMA, despite being the most economical, never caught on.

 GSM may be a little pricier, but young people prefer it because they can keep changing the card or handset. Taking note, Reliance is changing. Every youth brand not just cellular ones will need to to answer that question: Am I mobile? If not, you are making noise on silent mode as far as Indias youth is concerned.

Youth Identity Coconut or Cappuccino?

Every generation searches for an identity. This one is fashioning its unique response to a globalised world.

CROSS DRESSING: Embracing 'the West' does not necessarily curtail Indian tradition
Pop quiz: What is common to Oreos, bananas and coconuts besides the fact that they are all foods? The intriguing answer: They are all words used to describe immigrants with conflicted identities.

 Oreo is a metaphor for African-Americans who adopt the mores and mannerisms of Whites, becoming the Oreo cookie black on the outside, white on the inside. Banana is a term used to describe Chinese who act white, and coconut describes their Indian counterparts. But being an Oreo or coconut is not the same as a dink or yuppie.

 Those are cool catchphrases and, bluntly put, the former are seen as derogatory. The implication is of being a confused person, trying to be someone he or she is not. Of an individual desperately trying to be accepted by an alien culture and, in the process, becoming an alien to ones own. But times change, and so do attitudes.

 In 2006, the term coconut is an excellent way to describe not Sarabjit in Southall, London but Sahil and Sonali in India. Being brown is more than skin colour, it is the colour of a life that the Indian youth are embracing as their own. India, and Indians, have finally outgrown their romance with all things firangi.

 In what can only be described as the ultimate form of Gandhigiri, our countrys society has unconsciously followed the Mahatmas advice on going global: I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible, he said. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any. Of course, it took time and evolution.

 The kids in the 1980s and 1990s swore by Madonna and Meg Ryan and would not be caught dead shaking a leg to a Bollywood song. But, perhaps, they embraced those artists because they were young and upbeat, not because they strutted their stuff in the UK or America.

 What were the Indian alternatives? Laxmikant Pyarelal. Madhuri Dixit going Ek, do teen in hideous make-up and costumes. But then came Bally Sagoo, Apache Indian and, most importantly, A.R. Rahman Hindi film music could be hip. And Hindi films, with the likes of Ram Gopal Verma and Karan Johar entering the industry, followed suit.

 The same happened to Indian food, clothing and festivals. If you always thought dal-chawal was the most satisfying food in the universe, you could say it without fear of embarrassment. And as Ries and Trout said, positioning is the battlefield for your mind. Change the way you perceive the universe, and the universe itself changes.

 So dandiya became a nine day open-air disco and mehendi, a henna tattoo. In fact, thanks to those crazy foreigners, Tantra started selling India on a T-shirt. Soon, these T-shirts, cheekily proclaiming Horny OK please and Via Agra became hotter on college campuses than with hippies. The bottom line is, it took a decade for Mother India to transform herself from a dull Nirupa Roy to a cool Hema Malini.

 And now, the kids are proud to show off their mom in public and say that they love her. That is the new definition of being a Coconut brown on the outside and loving it. We come now to the crucial bit: being white on the inside. What does that mean, because what is Indian and what is western, at a fundamental level, can be endlessly debated.

 Are pre-marital sex and live-in relationships western? Is visiting Siddhi Vinayak every Tuesday and wearing sindoor Indian? And what if we have sex before marriage but also visit the temple? Does one action cancel out the other, leaving us on neutral ground?

 Heres what I think and it is a thought increasingly finding currency with the youth. Being able to live your life according to your own choices is the idea we are borrowing from the West. So, arranged marriage is not Indian per se. Having an arranged marriage because that is the only option your family will allow you, is.

 In short, if you live your life as an act of will, and you believe, I have my views and beliefs, you are free to have yours, that is being western, or white. You might argue that tolerance is a very Indian trait. At the macro level, we do believe that others have a right to live in their own way.

 But at a micro level, individuals are expected to conform. To never question, simply accept. Take our most famous mythological character, Shree Ram. It was wrong of Dashrath to banish his son for 14 years just to please Kaikeyi. But Ram achieved God-like status for being an obedient son.

 Can what your elders say never be wrong? That is the question young people are increasingly asking. They may eventually conclude there is a great deal of merit in the way things have been done. That yes, an arranged marriage is a good way to be introduced to the right kind of people.

 But that does not mean they accept everything about the concept. One may refuse to marry someone after meeting them just once, for 10 minutes. One could also say no to horoscopematching or dowry, or whatever it is about the institution they do not agree with. Marriage is just an example. The same could apply to all things considered Indian.

 From performing pujas to touching elders feet. Or deciding whether it is OK to sleep with your boyfriend. In direct contrast to the Coconut, you have the Cappucino. A person who may appear to be western on the outside but beneath the white froth is deeply brown.

 These are the young people who accept Indian culture without questioning it or refashioning it in any way. These say I fully trust my elders they know whats best for me. Of course, Indias elders have little or no trust in their youth. One can see this reflected in several ways:

 Many more colleges are imposing dress codes, restrictions have been placed on nightlife in Bombay and Bangalore, fixed ideas are emerging on what is Indian and what is not. Any television debate on any issue features the phrase bhartiya sanskriti at least two dozen times, without anyone truly understanding what it actually means.

 The bottom line is, with time, I see more and more of Indias youth becoming coconuts. This is simply because that path is preferred by human nature. The urge to be an individual is something so primal it cannot be thwarted. That is why capitalism triumphed over communism; and why democracy will ultimately prevail over dictatorship.

 The one and only countervailing force is that of religion. The Muslim world, in particular, lays down many prescriptions and restrictions. There are far more mochachinos and fewer examples of independent thinking among young Muslims, both in India and all over the world. However, even that may change, given time.

 The good news for those afraid of what will happen to Indian culture is this. Young people a majority of them, at least will retain their values. Just because a coconut votes yes in a poll on whether pre-marital sex is OK, does not mean he or she will participate in an orgy. Instead of being afraid of letting go, the older generation parents, teachers and well wishers need to believe in the youth.

 To provide them a canvas that stretches their mind, provokes their thinking and enables them to fashion a new social and cultural fabric. I am sure what they create will continue to reflect the warp and the weft of the wonder that is India.