"Namaste" is the Indian greeting, traditionally used with a prayerful undercurrent. "Namaste India 2002" is a daylong Tokyo program that, for the last 20 years, has been offering Indian greetings to the people of Japan. Sponsored and supported by several influential organizations of both countries, the cultural program sets out to present "something of everything Indian," said T.W. Sudhakar. "The size of the show is a surprise even to me."

Sudhakar was first involved in the program a year ago, soon after his arrival in Japan. He was appointed to head the Government of India Tourist Office, which since the 1960s has had a personable presence in Tokyo's Ginza district. He follows a line of energetic directors, some of them career women from the subcontinent, and brings to the post his own enthusiasm backed by his training and experience in tourism.

He was not always a government officer. At first he wanted to be a journalist. "My father was the headmaster of a school in Andra Pradesh," Sudhakar said. "My brothers became teachers. But not me." After his education, when he concentrated on commerce and business, he was appointed to a broadcasting station in Manila. "My wife and I were there for five years, and our first child was born there," he said. "I was there during the people's revolution. They were dangerous days for people in the media, especially for photographers." Broadcasting in his mother tongue, Telugu, Sudhakar stayed in Manila until 1990.