India's Millennials

Now on BBC News, young adults from Mumbai speak to us

about their hopes and dreams, in India's Millennials.

India's millennial generation.

Over 65% of this vast country's population are under 35.

They are tech-savvy, mobile, and better educated than their

parents and their grandparents.

In 2004, the BBC met a group of children in Mumbai

who encapsulate generation Y.

They came from a variety of backgrounds, but they all had

one thing in common.

Their hopes and dreams.

TOGETHER: Namaste.

We've returned to see how life has changed for them.

Have their expectations been met, or have their lives taken them

in directions they could never have dreamed of?

Spruha, Gaurav and Madhavi are watching the original BBC

programme for the first time in over ten years.

They went to school together, and are still good friends.

Namaste...

I'm Madhavi, and these are my friends.

We live in Mumbai...

I'm Madhavi, I'm 25 years old.

I was filmed for the BBC programme which was on the lives of kids

in Mumbai, about ten years back.

I live in a flat in Mumbai with my sister, mother and father.

When do you have yoga class today?

Two o'clock.

I like doing art.

When I grow up I will become a graphic designer.

But first, I've got Gujarati in school this morning.

ADULT MADHAVI: I live in a different flat now,

and I didn't grow up to be a graphic designer.

I am a practising lawyer.

In the past ten years, I have spent most of my time studying.

I pursued my legal studies at Government Law College

in Mumbai for five years.

I then pursued my masters at the University of Oxford

in England for a year.

And now I'm currently a practising lawyer in a mid-sized law firm.

It was my dad who actually pushed me to do law.

For me, the choice was always economics or law.

There was no question of her coming to my business.

I think, after 12 years she decided that she wants to go

into the legal law field, and God has been kind.

Five years she has studied at the Law College, the oldest

institution in Mumbai, and luckily she got into Oxford,

so there was nothing to think about or anything.

It was just to accept, and pay the fees.

For graduation we were so proud, our daughter is graduating in Oxford.

So, it was a nice, sunny day.

We went there in our Indian attire.

It's a proud moment for us.

I don't want to ask you any questions...

I think it's boring for everybody, I get very passionate,

and I think it's boring for everybody else

who's not a lawyer.

The timings are horrible for you guys.

Yeah, it's a tough balancing task.

I only get one day off a week, which is a Sunday, but sometimes it

also happens that I'm called into the office on a Sunday,

or I'm expected to work from home.

She may be committed to her work, but Madhavi's

priority is her family.

More than half of India's twentysomethings still live

with their parents, as she does.

The one thing that I have seen is that the family bond is one thing

in India that has never changed, and I don't see it changing, and I

don't even wish that it changes.

Though we have different lifestyles, we lead different lifestyles,

we still come back to a family at home, and I think that is a very,

very satisfying feeling.

She is traditional in other ways, too.

Happy to let her parents help her find a husband.

Now we have started seeing for her marriage proposals also.

She hasn't found anyone in Mumbai, neither in Oxford.

So we have to search for a decent boy.

We hope that, luckily, she gets a very good family and the boy

lets her pursue her career, also in life along with it.

Not all millennials in India are as fortunate

as Madhavi, and she knows it.

The only difference that I notice in millennials in Mumbai,

and especially in India, is the social, cultural divide,

the most important thing being the economic divide.

Hello, my name is Sagar, I am 11 years old.

I live with my family, that's where I live.

When we first met Sagar, he was living with his family under

tarpaulin on the side of the street.

Sagar's parents sold garlic and scrap metals to get by.

Sagar was determined to make a better life for himself.

My favourite cricketer is Yuvraj Singh, he plays

for the Indian team.

My goal is to be a doctor.

AS ADULT: I remember I was a little kid 12 years ago.

We were living in the slums at that time.

Now, our government has rehabilitated us to Mankhurd,

on the outskirts of Mumbai.

Mankhurd Compound is a development of 65 buildings, created under

the Slum Rehabilitation Act.

It's home to over 30,000 people.

There is little sanitation and a limited water supply.

But for Sagar and his family, it's a step up.

We have our own home, we have four sided walls, we are safe.

But this place is where all the people from

the slums are put together.

So, all the people from different communities, different

mentalities come together.

In the last ten years, things have changed.

I have changed.

When I was a child, I wanted to be a doctor,

and now I don't want to be a doctor any more.

I want to work for the media field.

I'm doing a bachelors in mass media, and I'm majoring in advertising.

It's a huge industry, it's growing.

It has a lot of scope.

Sagar lived in a single room with his mother and brother.

Growing up, Sagar was helped by the Akanksha Foundation,

an educational charity where he learned English

and was supported in his studies.

It's been a particularly hard journey for Sagar.

But he stayed on the path, and he's had huge struggles and hardships.

I think a lot of them financial.

Many of them emotional.

He is hugely determined, and has great grit and tenaciousness

to his nature, which has obviously seen him through and

brought him this far.

Hopefully, that'll see him much further in his life.

We were 30-odd kids and only five of us have made it to college,

and I'm one of the few.

Sagar has worked in call centres and fast food outlets to supplement

the family's income, and pay for his student fees.

I'm proud that I have still not given up.

Yes, there are days when I want to give up,

or I don't want to study, or I don't want to do anything.

I just want to quit everything and start earning for myself,

and live my life as I want.

But that's not going to take me far in life.

After college, Sagar plans to do an internship at Teach for India,

an educational charity.

He wants to work in the communications department, and then

look for a job in advertising.

What would you say are some of the bigger things you want to do

once you join the comms team at Teach for India?

First, I want Teach for India to be on everybody's page,

everybody's Facebook page, everybody's Instagram.

Everybody should like it.

We get more people who want to work with Teach for India,

show their support for us.

And ultimately get the support from the government.

So tell me a bit more about when you get your results now

and what are you thinking about your internship.

21st of April is my last exam.

After that I'm going to be free for two months,

until my results come.

I want to do an internship during that phrase, when I am

waiting for my results, and gain as much knowledge as I can,

and be with a team and learn how they work, and then apply for a job.

12 years ago, a short distance from the young Sagar,

a girl called Shenaz also lived by the side of the road.

She too was determined to forge a better life for herself.

My name is Shenaz, I'm 26 years old, and I'm married.

I live in Mumbai and I have two children, two beautiful children.

The BBC filmed me when I was 14 years old.

I went to dance classes.

Shenaz was a teenager when the famous Indian choreographer

Shiamak Davar sent trainers into studios in Mumbai to teach

jazz, ballet and modern dance.

She was earmarked as a student who showed great promise.

I loved dancing, it was my career, I wanted to make

a career in my dance.

By the time she was 15, Shenaz was taking the lead in shows.

But Shenaz decided she wanted something else out

of life, and chose a different path.

I stopped dancing, because I got married.

And I couldn't go to the classes.

Shenaz left school when she got married.

She was just 16.

After I left my school, I never stopped studying.

My husband helped me in my studies, he paid for my computer classes.

Shenaz and her husband have their own apartment,

shared with their daughter, their son, her mother-in-law

and her sister in law.

It's a big thing in Mumbai to have your own apartment,

and it's a single room with a bathroom and a kitchen.

It's very small, and we are happy in it.

She is serious about providing her children

with the best possible education, paying for after-school

classes for her daughter.

I want them to have a good education, because I have

left school very early.

So I want them to study and get good jobs, and be happy in their life.

My daughter loves dancing, so she might fulfil my dreams.

Shenaz, like Sagar, has come a long way in the past 12 years.

Her intelligence and optimism have helped her carve out a better life.

With the help of her husband, she now has a permanent

home and her own family.

There's lots to do in Mumbai.

That's me!

Gaurav has spent a lot of time living away from Mumbai

in the past decade.

Today, he is reunited with his childhood friends,

and enjoying watching his young self play tabla for the BBC.

Sometimes at lunch, I play tabla, an Indian drum.

So cute!

I'm Gaurav, I'm 24 years old.

When I was eight years old, I started playing tabla.

I used to go to tabla classes for the next six years.

Not just a talented tabla player, Gaurav was also a child actor.

But during his last years of school, he decided to do

something very different.

Basically I wanted to work for the society.

There were only two options, becoming a proper

surgeon or physician.

That was one option, and dentistry was the other option.

During my high grades, I was inclined towards

biology and medicine.

And during that time, I had braces on my teeth.

So I used to be frequently visiting the dentist.

The dental chair, the instruments and all that really fascinated me.

A degree in dentistry followed.

It took five years to qualify.

When I became a qualified dental surgeon, it was,

for me, of most importance to be a specialist.

This doctor who runs a practice in Mumbai has become his mentor.

Gaurav, first and foremost, has joined the very best field.

He is a very compassionate human being.

I would like him to get into the paediatric field,

get into prevention, it get into the government and get

more policies into place, where we can take this

to the rural area.

I want him to grow big, and take India with him.

Gaurav's plan is to open his own clinic in Mumbai.

He knows he's lucky to have the support of his family,

he still lives at home.

I have a good support from my parents, my grandparents.

They always drive me forward, and that keeps me going.

I did a Bollywood sequence.

Dancing in the dancing studio.

When she was growing up, Spruha went the same

dance studio as Shenaz.

She would have liked to have been in a Hindi movie.

I'm Spruha, I am 24 now.

Since I was last filmed by the BBC, I have since graduated school,

at graduate college.

I've switched one job and I'm currently in my second job.

I did my studies abroad.

I did an undergraduate degree in business.

I came back after finishing college, back to India.

When I was growing up, I'd always see things

happening around me, which was sort of an inspiration,

aspiration, ambition, that one day I would have my own office space,

I'd be running something of my own.

And to do that, it's always best to come back and learn,

and understand what's going on.

Another reason is my mum was missing me a lot!

Spruha's first job was as an analyst for a leading bank.

Then came the start-up boom in India, and she decided

to seize an opportunity.

Mumbai was becoming a space for start-ups.

Graduates, even people who weren't retired, suddenly wanted

to have their own ideas, and people were getting funded.

Everyone had their businesses, had fancy offices.

And it sounded like the dream to live.

They made it sound like you can have it if you want it.

I currently work at Refreshed Car Care.

We are a doorstep car cleaning service.

With Refreshed Car Care, you can book over the phone or online.

It started out as a small organisation, everyone does

everything, from the top of CEO, all the way down

to our cleaning staff.

Everyone has a responsibility to step in wherever needed.

Spruha works seven days a week, and Sunday is

usually her busiest day.

Despite the long hours, she loves working for the start-up.

Especially the excitement of not knowing what's going to happen next.

You don't know what's happening tomorrow, but at the same time

you're also thinking long term.

So you're not doing what you're not doing, why is it not going?

There's a constant push, there's a constant rush.

When I do get time off work, I generally go for a run

to de-stress, or I go to the gym, lift some weights.

That's my way of distressing.

That's my way of de-stressing.

You guys are moving your office, right?

Yes, yes.

We have rented out a new space, way bigger than we have now.

We got the wi-fi fitted yesterday, so we can start working from today.

My generation is different from my parents.

Our generation is a lot more risk-taking.

We know that we have heavy student loans to pay off,

but that is not stopping us from taking jobs at start-ups

or starting off on our own.

I think that's the way we have evolved now.

We want to do what we want to do, not something

that we are told to do.

Spruha is different from her parents in another way, too.

She has travelled much more than they ever did at the same age.

Every year I make a point to have a trip, have a travel plan,

that motivates me to keep working and then take that time off.

I think my generation is adding a lot to India's progress,

by pushing new ideas to the world, creating different businesses,

creating different opportunities.

The lives of these five young millennials are a far cry

from their childhood dreams.

Perhaps that's no surprise.

But all of them have worked hard to get where they are today.

Some come from privileged backgrounds, have studied abroad

and travelled the globe.

But they've worked long hours to make the most

of those opportunities.

Others have strived just to get a roof over their families' heads.

Their stories are also the story of modern India.

The gulf between the rich and the poor, but also

the possibilities the country can hold for those who are

diligent and lucky.

How will the next few decades pan out for these young people,

and for many others like them?

Ten years down the line, maybe five years down the line,

I see myself being settled, having a family of my own.

But at the same time, I wish to pursue my career.

Ten years down the line, I feel I'll be the top most

paediatric dentist in Mumbai.

Hopefully!

In ten years' time, I hope to have my own company,

doing something fun out of Mumbai.

I don't want a lavish lifestyle, I just want a simple lifestyle,

where I earn a lot of money but yet lead a simple life.

There should be peace in life, there should be a lot

of love and care, support, and that's it.

That's all I want, that's not much.

Hello.