The timing had its disadvantages. The attention of the media — which is severely US-centric at the best of times — was focused on the UNGA party with its sideshows like the Iranian president’s statements. Although Incredible India@60 did get a three-minute slot in ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’, no major American newspaper bothered to report or comment on it. The crowds that turned up at the various venues comprised largely those of Indian descent, although many American tourists buzzing around the South Street Sea Port complex also lingered awhile to watch the ‘Indiyan’ carnival there and even nibble on a tiny samosa, handed over gratis in small plastic bowls with tamarind ‘sauce’ — a taste of Incredible India, and all that.

“We also wanted to reach out to NRIs, so we are not disappointed that they turned out in large numbers,” said Jha. NRIs comprised a significant proportion of US travellers to India — projected in the current year to be around 18-19 per cent of the market share. It is this potential that the organisers of the New York show hoped that the Incredible India@60 gala would build upon.

But Indian tourism and its promoters will still have to contend with one major factor: Real India. Tourist posters can afford to ignore large pockets of mass deprivation, overlook ugly incidents of rape and crime against travellers, edit out widespread environmental destruction and poor water quality, but the tourists cannot. One NRI posed a niggling question to Kamal Nath, Union minister for trade, at the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas meet in New York: “Sir, when will I be able to eat a salad in Delhi without getting ‘delhi belly’?” The minister tried to laugh away the comment by saying, “You should be like me. No germ can stand me”, adding that a new food law was on the anvil. But this is just one more reason why there can be no getting away from the fact that if Incredible India@60 is to work, it needs a Credible India@60.