India, Oct. 7 -- On July 27, 2019, I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.

My party had been eliminated in Bhutan's elections 10 months earlier and was no longer represented in Parliament.

I was neither prime minister nor an MP; I met PM Modi simply as a private citizen.

I thanked him for his support during my years in office. And I told him he would always be my elder brother-not merely because he was older, but because he treated me with the affection an elder brother reserves for a younger sibling.

Then I told him something else: I saw him as an avatar of Vishnu. In our part of the world, I explained, enlightened rulers have long been regarded as such.

My words surprised me. Afterwards, I wondered what had prompted them. Had ...