Is Modi having a woman problem?
Even as the new Prime Minister of India jet sets across the globe in a seemingly enthusiastic bid to woo all - from adoring NRIs at The Madison Square Garden in New York City - where he was a rock star without a Yoko - to spontaneously playing the flute for the intrigued Japanese, to hosting the Chinese premier and his wife at home in Gujarat, it is becoming all too evident that he might be facing a slight, er, woman problem.
The first signs that the spouse problem was going to pose a challenge to the new PM were evident almost from the moment he won his big mandate. In his grand first big private-public moment of celebration, in an event telecast non-stop by news channels, he watched - and was seen watching by the world - the aarti by the Ganga with his good buddy and colleague Rajnath Singh.
Seating, sightseeing and other diplomatic events can be tricky for state officials - as we saw at home when France's then president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was hosted by India on the 59th Republic Day on 26 January, 2008. He attended without his glamorous then girlfriend Carla Bruni amid speculation that seating for "a girlfriend" not a wife at an Indian function would be a cause for diplomatic discomfort.
So we have India's first single PM in office - he is separated from his wife, a union from child marriage which didn't work out - in the age of 24 hour news channels and political power couples such as the Obamas, who tweet couple-ey PR pictures, going about his moment - bravely, in every big state event and celebration at home and abroad, alone.
The bachelor PM's sojourns across the globe, seen in this hue, range from endearing to sometimes cringe-making. The Chinese Premier Xi Jinping's wife Peng Liyuan, a star singer, was captured on cameras standing awkwardly on the side as the leaders of the countries chatted at photo-ops.
And at the banks of the River Sabarmati, where the PM hosted the couple for dinner, Modi - rather sweetly - tried to include Mrs Xi as the three sat on a jhoola - ironically in Indian pop culture, often the symbol of a love seat.
In America, he was accompanied at his meeting with Mr and Mrs Bill Clinton with his cabinet minister Sushma Swaraj - a wise choice of colleague indeed, making for photos of four powerful political individuals, while maintaining a politically correct gender ratio.
As for his dinner at the White House with Obama, minus the glamorous First Lady Michelle, perhaps it was a decision by officials to avoid the inevitable awkwardness of cosy threesome pictures that tend to be taken at such events, as we saw during some Modi-Jinpings moments.
A First Lady, of course, while having official duties at home and abroad, surely can have other advantages as well. Heads of state are only humans, after all, and live in the full glare of the world's cameras, and could always do with a little help.
Anyone can be caught with a bit of spinach between their teeth, and a partner can be helpful. Who knows, when the PM was about to start blowing the flute in Japan, if there had been a First Lady by his side, she may have gently nudged him, while smiling professionally for the cameras, and told him through her teeth to stop getting carried away. She could have saved a slightly awkward OTT moment for the PM!