It throws a family into disarray. Dr Vijay Nagaswami helps you make some sense of the situation

Preeti is pushing 12 and lives with her parents and her 18-year-old sister in what was hitherto an idyllic family. Financially successful, socially sought after, achievers of the Great Indian Dream, her parents had what they described as a “great relationship” with their daughters.

Not for them the burden of imposing harsh disciplines, not for them to worry about their children’s school performance, not for them the hassle of keeping teenage wolves from their doors. They eat breakfast and dinner together, they go on vacations at least once a year (overseas at least once in three years), they laugh together and they enjoy the same kind of movies and cuisine.

Until one day, Preeti announces at the breakfast table that she is in love and wants to spend her forthcoming twelfth birthday with her boyfriend and not with them. And then, the idyll explodes.

Her mother is appalled that her little baby could even consider such a thing (“Do you know how old you are, young lady?”). Her much-kissed sister, Neena, is disdainful of this new found ‘love’ of her kid sister (“Do you even know what love is, you silly child? Don’t cheapen the word.”).

Her father laughs indulgently and disappears behind a newspaper that he is scarcely able to read.