"My son is going to be like him?"

One of my friends here in India (call him A) has a son old enough to start attending school. He recently met another friend of mine (J, one that is much closer to me) to discuss schooling options. A, who had a recent religious Renaissance, told my friend J that he was thinking of sending his son to attend a certain school (DAV Public School) which is generally considered a progressive school rooted in Indian traditions. J told him, "Hey, that's the same school K attended," referring to me. At first A didn't accept that, "Didn't he go to ...?" with a list of schools. No, J told him, he very certainly went to the same school your son is going to attend. "Hmm" said A in a tone of disappointment, "My son is going to grow up to be like him?" As J explained it to me later, "like him" meant "ignorant of Indian traditions, mantras" and in general grow up to be an unacceptable human being.

Was I offended? Yeah, I was. But I was also quite amused. I guess awareness of Indian traditions and being religious is a relative scale and in India, I fall in the "undesirable" end of that spectrum.