The notion that someone, somewhere was born only because you were born, that someone came to this planet solely to love and cherish you, and was created by the powers above, just to be by your side, is beautiful indeed. While I really don’t care if it is true or not, I would like to believe that there is a special “one” for each and every living thing in this beautiful world.

Wow! Three thumping cheers to my teen readers for such an overwhelming response to last week’s column. Friends, I am overjoyed by your honest wit and homespun wisdom. Guess what? Every once in a while I am going to hand over this column to all you guys. I’ll just sit back and publish your replies, and help spread your vibrant thoughts to the rest of the fraternity.

This is our chance to enjoy our life to the fullest, not to stress ourselves out reasonlessly.” — Shagufta Seher
“We as teenagers focus on what we don’t have, rather than enjoy what we have. And that is our damn nature for these seven years of teenage.” — Prabhas Raju
Two cheers to these teenagers, Shagufta and Prabhas, for articulating the core problem. However, they could not provide an answer on how a teenager can live a stress-free life. Stating the problem clearly is half the work done. Let’s roll up our mental sleeves and get dirty trying to find the answers.

How do you get the maximum out of the heady seven — those seven turbo-charged teenage years? This is what Arikatha Tanuja wants to know. Now that’s a really good question. Well, my young readers, any ideas? Would you want more of the fun things? More entertainment, more thrills, more girlfriends and boyfriends, and less of the not-so-fun things? Less study, less parental control, less of boring home food...what exactly is your wish list?

Teenagers have often hijacked this column to pour out their love woes and I have become an unlicensed quack doling out prescriptions. Well, don’t you think it’s time that changed a little bit? I still get tonnes of mails from teens who have broken off, fought with, or lost out in love.

So we pick up from where we left off last week. So many teenagers have written me heart-breaking, but true stories about “losing out in love” as one puts it. “I am totally heart-broken...I will never be myself again!” one cries out. “I don’t know how to show my face to my friends,” wails another. Dozens of others have written very poignantly with painful details, things so depressing, I don’t want to mention it in this column.

By Mani shankar

A young reader writes: “I wnt t bcom an actr bt my dad he wont alw it. I hv dly fts on dis. My mom she smtmes sids wit me smtmes wit dad. Wtf is dis? I lstn to sht lds of bs evry dy. Pl tl wht i shd do, bcoz its vry irrting.” dk

A mother writes, “I am not happy at the way my son stays huddled over Facebook all the time. He’s stuck with it on his phone, on the PC and in his head. He seems to be brooding over it, living in it, sleeping with it. I am totally helpless. What do I do?”

What is that which starts innocently, fashionably, seductively… gives you an instant high and makes you feel more of a man? Which has an unmistakable air of style when you do it?