Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Latte factor makes the day brighter and happier for most youngsters. Yes, many can't function without their coffee of choice but the latte factor is more than that. This term owes its name to the coffee culture, but it describes the loosening of purse strings on a regular basis for an expensive magazine, CDs, cup of coffee, a certain sandwich from your favourtie daily, taking cabs and getting your hair done only in the best salon… At the end of the month or year, a huge chunk of money is spent on daily expenditure, which might seem trivial in the short run. But it's hard to quit the latte culture as it is one of the highlights of the day. And you have every reason to indulge in the latte factor in your youth as this is the only time when you have the least amount of responsibilities according to the youth. Rowena Rumah of Ideal Degree College says, "Looking cool is very important so we get our hair cut every two months in fancy parlours." Shoe addict, Mohit Srivastava

CHRISTINA FRANCIS HYDERABAD You can believe it or not, but if jeans are your second skin, unfailingly updated every season, you are making a huge contribution to environmental pollution. According to a recent report in Slate, large amounts of carbon dioxide emitting chemicals and fertilisers are used to produce cotton clothes, particu larly jeans. The report revealed that ‘to produce one pair of regular cotton jeans it takes threequarters of a pound of fertilisers and pesticides’. Seen this way, your jeans are not as harmless as the look. So does that mean that ecofriendly youth will ditch their denims? “No way. I’ll never give up jeans,” exclaims 20-year-old Divya Bhandari, an engineering student. “If I had to remove all my jeans, I’ll have a totally non-functional wardrobe,” she says. Divya points out that most young sters are totally dependent on their jeans, which have become “365-days-a-year clothing,” because they can be worn both as casual and for mal wear. In fact, many youngst