Chennai, India ? As the clock approaches 3 p.m., children suddenly start filing from the doors of P.S Senior Secondary School, noisily chattering through the dusty schoolyard.

Groups of girls and boys with heavy backpacks, lunch boxes and empty water bottles cram themselves into tiny auto-rickshaws, sweat pouring from their foreheads.

A group of barefoot girls, in their school uniforms, stand outside a Hindu temple while on a school trip in their native India. From left are Ajita Purnam, 13, Swetha Jaishankar, 13, Aiswarya Seshadri, 13, Padmapriya Prasanath, 14, Saranya Venkatramanan, 14, Malini Ganesh, 13, Sangeetha Murthi, 15, and Madhu Chandrashekar, 14. In India, girls and boys typically don't visit each other's homes.

Chennai, the busy and ever-humid port city of south India, is just like any other major city a playground for teen-agers replete with sprawling movie complexes, neon-clad shopping areas and roadside cafangouts.

In such an exciting atmosphere, one might expect to find an equally dynamic social scene, but that’s not quite the case, at least in Chennai.

“We have our groups of friends, and we do things together, but it sometimes gets boring with just girls in the group,” says Madhu Chandrashekar, a ninth-grader at P.S Senior Secondary. “If you are a girl, boys from school aren’t typically allowed to come to the home it’s just a thing that everyone knows.”

Madhu’s classmate Aishwarya Seshadri, 13, nods in agreement.

“(Talking with boys) is considered indecent by some of the old-fashioned teachers, and they will start thinking badly of you,” she says. “Once that happens, you can expect your reputation to go down the drain.”

Maybe it’s not quite that bad. These girls do talk with boys, though on a strictly acquaintance basis. And the boys don’t really seem to mind at all.

Siddharth Venkatramanan and his friend Srivatsan (who did not provide a last name), both students at P.S. Senior Secondary, nervously giggle as they voice their opinion on girls.

“I have not experienced the need to actually want (to be with girls),” says Siddharth, 13.

Of course, this indifferent attitude may soon change as these boys, in the next few years, join the many roadside-Romeos waiting on their ever-so-stylish mopeds outside a women’s school, anxious for a smile of approval from the girls as they are dismissed from class.

Srivatsan, 13, backs his friend up, saying that he doesn’t prefer the company of girls, but also admits to admiring them from afar.

“I do like the girls from VIVA, that new pop music group the ‘Star Wars’ lady is not bad either,” he says.

Natalie Portman is sure to be flattered as should the many other celebrities young teens worship, whether they are Brad Pitt and Britney Spears or native actors Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai.

Hamsa Subramaniam, a senior at Lawrence High School, travels to India every year to visit family members and attend religious ceremonies. Hamsa is a member of the Teen Advisory Board at the Journal-World and will be writing stories for the newspaper.

When comparing high school life in the United States with Chennai’s, there are other clear differences besides the notion of decency. Friends, sports and parties are generally the defining elements of the high school experience in the States, a sharp contrast to the rigid academic curriculum and the school uniforms of most Indian schools. Sports and parties are not as prevalent in India.

(However, Madhu mentioned that in other Indian cities, like Bombay and Delhi, the school environment seems to be on the less conservative side.)

Malini Ganesh points out another difference between the school systems.

“American schools seem to encourage creativity and openness,” says the 13-year-old P.S Secondary student, “whereas Indian schools for the most part ensure that all students are sound in the fundamentals of every subject (sometimes leaving less room for creativity).”

The general sentiment of these students is that children in America have been brought up exposed to dating and an emphasized social life, in part due to the latitude that children are allowed in school.

Chennai, however, is “very conservative and children concentrate on the ‘important’ things,” according to Malini. For most kids, this means the first and only priority is education, at least at this age.

Still, Madhu, Malini, Siddharth and the rest of the gang are just like most American teen-agers giddy, modern and intelligent. At times, they just find themselves caught between a culture that is rich in tradition and a world that is constantly changing. Aishwarya knows one thing for sure:

“Kids who live in America are fortunate they take advantage of the opportunity to get a good education, while feeling free enough to balance a social life.”

I know some roadside-Romeos who might agree.

Hamsa Subramaniam is a senior at Lawrence High School. She is a member of the Journal-World’s Teen Advisory Board.