The Waiter Was Wired.(parents in India hire private investigators to monotor children )(Column)

Away at medical school, 23-year-old Swati Mohan (not her real name) reveled in her newfound freedom. She drank, experimented with drugs and engaged in premarital sex--all big taboos for someone raised in a traditional Indian family. Best of all, her wealthy parents knew nothing. Or so she thought. When her stellar grades started slipping, word filtered back to her father, a timber merchant in New Delhi. He promptly hired a private eye to investigate her. Before long, her parents had a detailed dossier--complete with lurid pictures--revealing the full extent of her partying. "She was running round with boys and her behavior was way beyond the norms of our society," says Swati's mom, Priya Mohan. "I was depressed. We're a modern family but still traditional. We worried about her reputation--our reputation."

In India's enduring culture of arranged marriages, a resume sullied by even a few indiscretions can scupper chances of a good match. So more and more parents have begun turning to private detectives to keep tabs on their wayward children. Indeed, rebelliousness is on the rise; India's first MTV generation is taking full advantage of the explosion of parties, bars and Internet chat rooms that have emerged over the past decade as the country has opened up. "We're in the middle of a rapid transition," says Jitendra Nagpal, consultant psychiatrist at Delhi's Child Development Center. "We see upper- and middle-class parents increasingly being deceived and cheated by their children."

That's good news for India's burgeoning private-detective industry. So far, there are about 100 agencies nationwide, mostly in the big cities. Already 40 percent of their revenue comes from checking out prospective partners for arranged marriages; a high price is still attached to a woman's unblemished reputation. "This isn't a 'courtship culture' where young people try a combination of partners until they find the right one," says Patricia Uberoi, a sociologist at Delhi's Institute of Economic Growth. "Men still expect to marry virgins."

And parents are increasingly determined to provide them. Each agency now handles as many as a dozen cases of parental spying every month. Detectives tail kids from the moment they leave home or their dormitory. Spies have been known to pose as waiters in bars, or as ...