Tiffany Teens

WHENEVER the mood strikes, 16-year-old Neelam Sarkar, a junior at a suburban Mumbai college and daughter of a reputed builder, takes along a...

WHENEVER the mood strikes, 16-year-old Neelam Sarkar, a junior at a suburban Mumbai college and daughter of a reputed builder, takes along a friend or a cousin on a frenzied shop hop.
A few tees picked up at exclusive fashion store Morgan are followed by pairs of shoes and boots at the equally upper crust Mango. They later take in a movie and the day is rounded off with a lavish dinner at the Taj. A neat Rs 20,000 for a couple of hours8217; work.

The mood, incidentally, strikes Sarkar, who otherwise loves to spend time in her all-pink room penning poems, very often.

8216;8216;I have to buy at least one thing every day, be it a top, a dress or an entire wardrobe,8217;8217; confesses the no-nonsense teen with a surprisingly grown-up sense of style8212;8216;8216;no tacky short skirts or minuscule tops8217;8217;.

Her pal Neha Manik lives a similarly charmed life. 8216;8216;If I have nothing to wear on a particular night, I go and pick up something, but never from street side stores,8217;8217; she states. 8216;8216;And my mom lets me shop if I8217;m depressed,8217;8217; says the commerce student.

Rich brats, brand babies8212;call them what you will, but metros are waking to more and more teenyboppers every day. Equipped with the power of plastic, unconcerned about five-figure cellphone bills, they flit about town in their chauffeur-driven cars picking up stuff or hanging out at the toniest of places on a whim or a fancy.

The only thing their parents want in return is good grades.

Ask Sonam Chandna, 16, who8217;s training to become an instructor with ace choreographer Shiamak Davar8217;s troupe. She likes hip hop outfits read Rocky S, Fossil, Diesel, and has more than 25 pairs of shoes. But we guess she isn8217;t a letdown in the report card stakes. As her happy mother Neelu will tell you, 8216;8216;I want my daughter to look good and be smart. Beauty with no brains or vice versa doesn8217;t work today.8217;8217;

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Mumbai8217;s Depesh Sharma is only 18, but he8217;s already living the life of a beau monde. This commerce student and aspiring actor he8217;s there in Main Hoon Na lunches at five-star eatery Mezzo Mezzo and hangs out at ritzy teen joints, his collection of watches an Omega Seamaster, a Bvlgari etc gleaming under the strobe lights. 8216;8216;If a really good trance DJ is playing in Goa, I fly down,8217;8217;says Sharma, whose threads include Armani and Versace.

Then there is gizmo goon Akash Deshmukh name changed who spends serious money on cellphones he8217;s changed four in one year, and catches a movie a day on his personal DVD player. But wait till we tell you what this international level squash player8217;s pet passions are8212;manicures and pedicures, hair gel and boxer shorts.

At last count, he had approximately 40 pairs of boxers and 25 different types of hair gels 8216;8216;wax, mousse, wet look, dry look, Body Shop, Calvin Klein8217;8217;. Quite the metrosexual.

8216;8216;I have to do well academically and help my dad at his office. That way, we8217;re both happy,8217;8217; he says.

Meanwhile, riding and horses are where it8217;s at for Delhiite Abhishek Chopra. All of 19, he8217;s owned four horses and a pony over the years. His latest acquisition8212;an Australian breed for Rs 1,50,000. 8216;8216;I am now planning to buy an untrained horse, which I8217;ll train myself,8217;8217; says Chopra. 8216;8216;Riding is not paying, I just ask my dad restaurateur Ashok Chopra for all my needs.8217;8217;

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Adds Manik: 8220;It8217;s not like we party all day. Even to just get into dad8217;s business, we have to work real hard.8221; Yeah, tell us about it.

With inputs from Ankur Kalita in New Delhi