Sorry, says the attendant, we don't stock that, and, bam, he's shot in the temple. Where, in which provincial town, will this drama be re-enacted next? And over what this time? A mug of black coffee maybe? In our desensitised times, it's often an effort to whip up outrage over senseless crime, but this month's displays of the heady cocktail of money, clout and an overriding need for instant gratification have brutally highlighted the symptoms of a society in crisis.

Make no mistake, these are not stray cases of an errant MTV generation's abiding pursuit of the freedom of choice, of parenting gone tragicallyirresponsible. In fact, they mirror the warped universe inhabited by their parents, our bold and beautiful, our movers and shakers; this generation is simply playing by the rules of this parallel universe.

It is a world where rules are made for others, where one constantly reaffirms one's charmed existence by breaking them, by rechecking one's hold on the system by manoeuvring it. It's a case of alienation, said some psychiatrists after Jessica Lall's gory death. This all-encompassing explanation has passed muster for far too long, for all those violent acts that could be put down to a yawning rich-poor divide, for the incomprehensible and tragic fallouts of loneliness and of countercultures.

But here, alienation from what? Definitely not from a social system which shields its toddlers from the very beginning, from the kindergarten teacher's ire over incomplete homework by employing a battery of tutors to allow them unadulterated leisure. And hey, from those early years it's a daily lesson in how far thisshadow framework of values will get them.

No, it's not alienation, it's instant gratification that threatens to blow down the house of cards. And in globalised India, where alluring images flash by faster and ever faster, where trendoids set the agenda for everybody else, this hurried impatience to attend to one's desires has suffused through society. Consider these incidents superficially gleaned from the dailies in just the past few weeks. At a tennis-ball friendly in Pune, a batsman resents an appeal and batters the bowler to death.

In a middle-class Delhi home a tutor obsessed with a bright college girl kills her for announcing her marriage to another. A 20-year-old stabs a 12-year-old 34 times for not returning his affections. Who is going to instil in these youngsters a tolerance for the word no? Their parents and teachers? But it is their failure that is writ large on the blood stains. The cops? Perhaps, by starting with first principles, by exploring the merits of zero-tolerance policing.