An unexpected question...

We were having a snack at a darshini. For the Bangalore noob, a darshini in Bangalore is a simple, low cost self-service restaurant with high tables and no seating, just like the Shanthi Sagar or Adigas in your neighbourhood. My daughter was perched on the high table, visibly unhappy with the Rava Idly she was getting to eat while eyeing Gobi Manchurian that we were refusing to give her. An elderly gentleman, may be in his late seventies, walked in. My daughter has this habit of staring at strangers with wide eyes and blank face, not unlike how Mowgli must have stared at the first humans he saw. This invariably draws the stranger's attention, which leads to the stranger trying to talk to her. She then loosens up, ready to give a big smile or even a hand shake. This man, rather than trying to chat up the kid, asked us "ಮಗುವಿನ ನಕ್ಷತ್ರ ಯಾವುದು?" "What is the nakshatra (birth star) of the child?". We had as much expected this question as the shareholders expected the Satyam scandal. A number of people ask us what her name is, never her nakshatra. We somehow gathered our wits and told him her birth star and he said something like "It is a very good star, she will get very good education" and left the scene. While my wife thought it was strange that someone would ask this question, I was quite amused by it. This person did not look like a Purohit, he was just a person who grew up in a traditional environment and doesn't want to change with the changing times.