'Boomerang generation': India’s middle class is back under one roof, warns CEO

A rising number of thirty-somethings in India’s cities are quietly moving back in with their parents—not out of choice, but economic necessity. Dubbed the "Boomerang Generation," their return home is creating modern joint families no one planned for—and no one is quite prepared to navigate.

Shantanu Deshpande, founder of Bombay Shaving Company, sparked attention this week with a viral LinkedIn post predicting the return of grown adults to their childhood homes across urban India.

“Careers didn’t take off as planned… Homes unaffordable, especially the kinds one grew up in. Who will downgrade?” Deshpande wrote, pointing to a mix of stalled professional growth, soaring living costs, and rising debt as key drivers of the shift. The result, he says, is an "enforced joint family" setup—four to five adults under one roof, all valuing autonomy but bound by financial pressure.

This echoes a rising U.S. trend known as “hub-sons”—a blend of “husband” and “son”—describing adult men who live at home and adopt caregiver roles for their parents, often while job-hunting or managing remote work. Many cook, clean, and handle household logistics as their parents work full-time.

Behind the humor of “hub-son” memes is a grim reality: economic stagnation. Pew Research data shows nearly one in three American adults aged 18–34 live with their parents, with men more likely than women to do so. Similar numbers are emerging in India's metros, especially post-pandemic.

In Deshpande’s view, the emotional toll may rival the economic one. Parents carry the weight of unfulfilled dreams—often their own aspirations projected onto children—while returning sons and daughters struggle with lost confidence and a perceived step backward.

Even routine actions like ordering food, hosting friends, or planning a vacation, he notes, become “dangerously frictional” under one roof.

As real estate prices soar and salaries stagnate, India's young professionals may be facing not just a housing crisis—but a generational collision.