I first covered an Indian Prime Minister at the UN when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister in the early 2000s and nobody gave a rat’s posterior of what an Indian PM had to say at the UN. Being part of the Indian media contingent, one could only hope for a passing mention of the Indian PM. And hopefully not hyphenated with Pakistan or Kashmir crisis. But even that was ambitious. In contrast Pakistan’s President General Musharraf was all over the place. He even managed to appear on Jay Leno’s show, which was huge.

Reams and reams have now been written on the meetings that PM Modi had in the five days in New York and Washington DC, the CEOs that he met, the presidents and prime ministers he interacted with, and common people of Indian origin. To each he promised a new India. Pic/Getty Images