While travelling to work in an auto rickshaw, the driver asked me, “Madam aap TV dekhte ho kya?” (Madam, do you watch TV?)
Wondering what would come next, I replied with a nod.

“Hamare desh mein agle saal khel hone vale hain, mehmaan ayenge magar mehmaano ke liye humne kya kiya? (We are going to have games in our country next year, guests will come but what have we done for our guests?),” he asked.

 With a very miserable expression he further said, “Padhe-likhe log bhi sadak pe kachra aur thook fekte hain.” (Even educated people spit and litter the streets)

 The auto driver is not the only one concerned about this issue.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram remarked recently that people should learn to behave like citizens of an international city.

“We want to encourage people to change their mindset,” he said.

 The Indian Olympic Association has expressed its concern over the logistical preparations for the event, but who is going to check on how the people behave?

Beggars in the national capital are also looking forward to the Games. A large number of tourists would be a windfall and beggars are leaving no stone unturned to be prepared.
An informal academy has been set up in New Delhi’s Rohini area where children are taught to beg in different foreign languages.

Countries like Germany and China had taken the initiative to train their citizens to behave properly when they hosted the football World Cup and the Olympics.

 Should India also start a similar training program or is it too late?

The Indian Tourism’s tagline reads - ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’. (Our guest is blessed and our visitor is God)

Do you think people will adopt this tagline in the months to come? Are we really ready for a global event like the Games?

As a growing power which aims to rewrite global economic and geopolitical realities, India’s first order of business is to secure its strategic periphery without provoking a backlash from its neighbours.

But the political crisis in Nepal, triggered by the resignation of Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda, is yet another reminder of India’s strategic challenges.

Nepal has for long sat in India’s sphere of influence, but the rise of the Maoists has seen an increasing antipathy in the nascent Himalayan republic towards New Delhi.

In fact, the Maoists’ foreign policy chief told Reuters that India was to blame for precipitating the crisis by blocking Prachanda’s move to remove army chief Roopmangud Katawal.

India sees the Maoists, who control 40 percent of the parliament seats, as edging towards China. So, it wants to find a counterweight to the Maoists in a ruling coalition, many analysts say. The showdown over Katawal’s removal presented the flashpoint.

In its quest for strategic influence, many say India may have lit too many fires around itself.

War and misery blights Sri Lanka, with political ramifications in India; Bangladeshi politics remains volatile and the country eyes India with suspicion; the military junta in Myanmar is pro-China; Pakistan is wobbling under a spell of violence that has a direct bearing on India’s security.

Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram says India is caught in a “ring of fire”.

But does India have the diplomatic dexterity to manage regional flashpoints that critics say could in part be blamed on India itself?

The Economist magazine says a potential challenge to India’s rise is geopolitical (and the Nepal crisis bears that out). It says how successful a global power India becomes will depend partly on its ability to mediate and resolve the rising number of crises in its neighbourhood.

But will India be able to intervene in Nepal or in a post-war Sri Lanka without being resented by the local population or the government? Or will it be resented for its perceived paternalism towards its smaller neighbours?

(Reuters photos of protests in Nepal and soldiers patrolling streets in Pakistan)

Would someone please remind folks that it’s Friday and we all deserve a relaxing weekend? I for one will be doing my usual Saturday morning Yoga. But it’s nasty out there - the contagion has spread, and panic is now the correct adjective.

The overnight Dow crash hit Asia hard - the Sensex is down at least 9 percent and looks like it’s headed for a holiday south of 10,000, the rupee has hit an all time low and in Japan the Nikkei tumbled another 10 percent. Looks like that decision to let Lehman go bust set off the mother of all chain reactions…and Indian markets may be headed back to 2006 levels.

Here’s our resident technical analyst Phil Smith:

…As the chart shows the SENSEX has broken through some very strong and very important support points in the past couple of weeks. These are clearly showed on the chart with the support at 11,900 to 12,500 being broken effortlessly. The next major support levels for this market now stand at around 9,700 as marked and coincides with the old support levels reached back in 2006 when the market staged its dramatic correction then. Currently all the technical indicators are bearish as they have been since the middle of September

Once again, all eyes are on Washington, where on Saturday President Bush (remember him?) will meet finance ministers from the world’s wealthiest countries. The IMF will be there too with emergency funds available.

But is this the time for traditional remedies? A coordinated rate cut by central banks on Monday feels like ancient history. So what’s next? The U.S. government is talking about taking large stakes in banks to ensure liquidity (meaning free marketeer President Bush may preside over the largest nationalisation of banks in history!)

And that’s what it may take, because every other kind of faith seems to have been tossed aside - banks are simply refusing to lend. Here in India, Chidambaram is still calling for calm - insisting the fundamentals are strong.

But can you expect Indian investors to lie in Shavasan while the rest of the world takes billions out of the markets? Your views are welcome, and please, try to have a good weekend.