narendra modi: Will They? Won’t They? Won’t They? Will They?

Never has there been so much hope and expectation of the dadi-mausi kind been placed on two grown-up persons meeting outside the ambit of Matchmaking Central. Will sparks fly this time? Will it be a damp squib in keeping with the relations between the countries these two people come from?

Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping being in the same place (Johannesburg) around the same time (from yesterday afternoon till tomorrow) has got all tongues and tails wagging. Because of the Montague-Capulet situation of the two sides, however, neither party’s entourage, pundits and pandits ‘back home’ can confirm that the two have plans to meet – in case the rendezvous never happens. Or, worse, one of the two storm out of the tryst with their, well, trousers in a twist.

But if the two do meet, the press teams of both parties could announce that the two leaders had utterly coincidentally flown some 2 hrs 10 mins away from Joburg to Cape Town’s Observatory ‘burb to get away from the Brics and mortar glare for a few hours. And whaddayaknow!

They bumped into each other totally ‘randomly’. This could be announced if, and only if, photos capture the two leaders bathed in intra-Asian smiles, bonhomie and late august company. Who knows? Perhaps after images of the two so happy together, things could overnight lead to a Hindi-Chini high-high.