An Indian couple is taking their son to court, demanding that he and his wife either produce a grandchild within a year or cough up almost $650,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanjeev and Sadhana Prasad say they exhausted their savings by raising and educating their pilot son and paying for a lavish wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now they want payback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy son has been married for six years but they are still not planning a baby. At least if we have a grandchild to spend time with, our pain will become bearable,\u201d the couple said in their petition filed with a court in the north Indian town of Haridwar last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The compensation they are demanding is 50 million rupees ($650,000), which includes the cost of a wedding reception in a five-star hotel, a luxury car worth $80,000 and paying for the couple\u2019s honeymoon abroad, the Times of India reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The parents also forked out $65,000 to get their son trained as a pilot in the United States, only for him to return to India unemployed, the paper said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe also had to take a loan to build our house and now we are going through a lot of financial hardships. Mentally too we are quite disturbed because we are living alone,\u201d the couple said in their petition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple\u2019s lawyer Arvind Kumar said the petition will be taken up for hearing by the court in northern India on May 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India has a strong joint family system with many generations, including grandparents, nephews, aunts and uncles, often living in the same household.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in recent decades, the trend has shifted, with young couples preferring to move away from their parents or siblings, and wives \u2013 such as in this case \u2013 opting to work rather than focus on having children and staying at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n