Back To The Nest

Rising cost of urban living along with stagnant salaries are pushing a generation of young professionals to move back in with their parents. That situation may lead to friction but mature handling make the situation a win-win for both

- Ayush Khar

In India, it's not unusual to find individuals in their 20s or 30s living with their parents, with joint families considered the bedrock of Indian culture. But a whole generation who migrated from smaller cities to bigger ones in search of a good education and a salaried job in the last few decades rewrote that concept to a large extent. Financial independence became a cherished concept defined by moving out of one's childhood home. Add to that, widening generation gap in terms of life choices led many young individuals to find their own places once they started earning, even if they lived in the same city as their parents.

That urge to fly far from the nest seems to have had a short life in India, given that the economics of financial freedom is not so simple anymore, as Indians face a new reality marked by an uncertain jobs landscape and rising real estate and rent cost.

This new generation returning home to live with their parents, after tasting independent living, is being called the boomerang generation. A recent social media post by Bombay Shaving Company founder Shantanu Deshpande highlighted the rising prevalence of the trend. In his post, Deshpande talked about how more and more men and women are expected to move back in with parents amid rising expenses and other pressures, and called the people moving back home the boomerang generation.

This trend is also being quantified by recent real estate trends where people are preferring larger homes, pointing towards a growing demand for larger spaces to house bigger families.