While many manners considered fine in one culture may be rude in another, we surely cannot base that as an excuse during the times when our judgement is required for an appropriate action or manner relative to a situation. While the nepali celebrity in the picture clearly doesn't know how to hold a knife and a fork in his hands or how to use it which is understandable since we eat with our hands in our culture, smoking however, while eating is clearly not a good mix. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. And I don't think Moneyminded in anyway is trying to mean that one should be westernized and copy everything from the western culture, like some of you have suggested. While I do not advise anyone to copy everything from another culture, I think it is at least wise to copy what is right and meaningful from another culture and drop those that make no sense from our own. Otherwise we'll forever be "Kuwa Ko Bhagwuata." As an example let me tell you my experience. I knew a guy from India who once did a pretty big engineeering project for US Air Force. The US Air force people were very pleased and invited him for lunch which he declined. I asked him why he had declined such an honorable invitation, for which he replied, "Well if I go for that Lunch, I would have to eat with fork and knife, and I don't know how to use them." He has been here for more than 2 years.