Every person in this world gets the gift of youth but very few are able to make this phase really meaningful. For biologists, the young age is a matter of biochemical changes in the body. When the growing age reaches a certain stage these specific bio-chemical changes start taking place and they continue for many years. Generally the age-span between 15 and 35 is taken as the period of prime youth. After 35 the young age begins to wane and is gradually replaced by the silvery touch of middle age maturity. So this prime span of about twenty years is the most precious in one’s life and need to be utilized for laying down the foundations for worthwhile life.

The onset of youth is accompanied not only by physical and biological changes but many psychological and emotional changes too, whose upward and downward swings have been deeply studied by psychologists. According to them this is a period of emotional flux. Many kinds of thoughts and feelings come and go, waves of impulses and spurs rise and subside, stormy cycles of conflicts, dilemmas and rebellions arise in the psyche. All these waves rise and fall with such rapidity that they can easily confound and destabilize a person. The psychologists, their differences on many counts notwithstanding, are all unanimous on this ongoing transitional storm inside. They all believe that if the urges and strengths of this youth phase are not controlled and properly channelized, life could be derailed and the melodious song of youth could turn into a noisy cacophony.

Be it the biologist or the psychologist, both hold that with the coming of youth many physical and mental capacities develop. But along with them there also grows up a crop of hungers and desires which start consuming these extra powers gifted by nature. Endless desires and longings for material and corporeal pleasures dry up the inner spring-well of energies. They divert the young mind in multiple directions, chasing mirages one after another. By the time one gets hold of oneself and comes down to the terra firma of reality it is often too late. The gilded gift of youth and everything else is lost; the body becomes weak and falls a prey to physical diseases, psychosomatic disorders and complexes. This scenario is not imaginary. Often we come across living examples of such unfortunate endings of wayward youth.