How do you react when you meet a 29 year-old man who admits, quite matter-of-fact, that he still lives with his parents? A queer look, maybe: there but for the grace of God, go I: or what a wuz. Well, in Britain, it’s becoming very common.

Young Indian males have, for a long time, lived with parents well into adulthood and beyond and have been mocked and denigrated by their more enlightened’ English or American counterparts. Now, Britain has suddenly discovered it is doing likewise and turning into an alarmingly similar bachelor nation of mama’s boys - otherwise known as “boomerang boys”.

The new category refers to the young British adult male’s newly-discovered inclination to leave home to go to university; and then move back in again with mom and dad. According to a new report, produced by the Office for National Statistics, Britain’s boomerang boys, six in ten Englishmen, aged 20-24, live with their parents because they can’t afford to leave. That’s nearly 10% more than the number who lived at home 15 years ago; in a sign that a new trend is emerging.

Fast-rising house prices, student debts from college; and small starting salaries have made the boomerang boys plump for the parental home, says the report. It records that, far from flying the nest, almost a quarter of British men are still to be found in it until their 29th birthday. One in 10 clings on into their mid-thirties.

A bit surprisingly, Britain’s girls were manifestly more likely to move away from home early and fast, either by sharing a flat with girlfriends or by pursuing a live-in relationship with an older man.

The report has evoked almost as much hilarity as consternation about the supposed emasculation of British men. Till now, jokes about the Italy’s mama’s boys known as mammoni’ - were current. More than half of all the single Italian men are still living at home rather than marrying and setting up their own establishment. Now the Brits seem to have caught up.

Five years ago, a 30-yearold Italian mammoni’ made history; and became the focus of one-liners and comic stand-ups, when he won a court case to force his father to continue to pay his mother maintenance, in order that he could carry on living at home with her.

British parents, too, are experiencing some parental anxiety about the male fledglings’ return to the nest. A vast body of self-help literature is increasingly on British bookshelves to counsel hapless parents hamstrung by their returning progeny, not least, the aptly-titled Boomerang Kids: How to Live With Adult Children Who Return Home’.

The new report chimes with the findings of a recent bank survey of 1,200 graduates, which said that almost 60% were still being supported by their parents three years after leaving university.

I don’t know what the situation is in the USA but, with property prices rising all over, the trend may catch on there too. It could be worse. In India, one big happy’ family translates into mom, dad, son, daughter in-law and their kids living under one roof. Is that a horrifying thought? We Indians have been doing it for years. You get used to it sort of eventually.