It was touching to see Narendra Modi and Barack Obama together, the leaders of the world's two largest democracies. They did not stand stiffly on ceremony as you would expect of two leaders, especially during the pomp and circumstance of great state occasions.

India's prime minister dispensed with protocol to turn up to greet the U.S. president on his arrival at the airport in Delhi. The two men hugged and were seen several times joking freely together, as if they were long lost brothers.

The words "lovefest" and "bromance" come to mind. It was a refreshing change from the contempt that Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger showed a generation ago for Indira Gandhi's India, or indeed from the well-mannered correctness of previous prime minister Manmohan Singh on his meetings with recent U.S. presidents.