YOUR PARENTS ARE GETTING YOU WATCHED

It may remain a debatable issue whether life imitates art or vice-versa.
This time around, one thing is for sure, life is moving a step ahead of art.

Going by Ekta Kapoor TV serials (if only that could be termed art) it is
scheming men and women who keep detective agencies occupied by their
insatiable depths of suspicion and distrust. In real life, suspicion has
moved a step further. Now parents pay detective agencies to keep an eye on
their errant babas and babies.

"The trend has started in a big way as more and more young boys and girls
are moving from small towns to hostels in cities for better educational
facilities. In case of girls, parents become suspicious when their
lifestyle grows out of proportion to the money they receive from home. I
was recently approached by the father of a girl who could not understand
how his daughter could afford a lifestyle she lead. She had rented a flat
for Rs 4,000, had a mobile and dressed in branded clothes, all this in the
Rs 10,000 he was sending her," says Guneet Chaudhary, director Australasia.

If growing consumerism is pushing girls to cross boundaries of
socially-approved behaviour, with boys problems are different. "Parents of
boys hire us when they get worried about the company their sons keeps.
Often, it is when they become suspicious of the boy's involvement with
drugs and other addictives," adds Guneet.

"It is not only the rich, parents from middle class families too approach
us. The trend is growing as they are baffled with the lifestyles their
children are able to afford. Middle class parents get more worried about
their daughters. Small town girls undergo a total transformation of
personality which arouses suspicion. Many girls are lured by rich men. We
have helped many parents. Some girls even refuse to leave the city when
their parents come to take them home," says an employee of a detective
agency based in Sector 35.

Is there some degree of hesitation in approaching a detective agency when
the matter is as serious as private affairs of one's own child?

"Not really. Before they come to us they have already gone through all that
their own sources, observation and rumours could lead them to. This
situation is different from the situation that arises between spouses.
Things between spouses could be exaggerated and blown out of proportion.
But when parents hire us, their need is genuine," comments Guneet.