Prime minister and Pokémon are not words you'd usually expect to be strung together in the same sentence. But they came together on Tuesday, thanks to the jet-setting ways of Narendra Modi and the worldwide popularity of the augmented reality mobile game Pokémon GO.

For the uninformed, Pokémon was an immensely popular handheld game in the 1990s that was relaunched on July 6 as the “real world adventure game” Pokémon GO. The game encourages players to search for Pokémons – fictional creatures with various attributes – in the real world with their mobile phones.

Niantic Labs, the developer of Pokémon GO, uses GPS to detect where and when a player is in the game to make Pokémons show up around her. The player has to capture the creatures that appear on her phone screen, and if she does it right, the Pokémons gets added to her Pokédex. The object of the game is to catch as many Pokémons as possible.

Indians have joined the frenzy around the game, despite the app not being launched here. Nintendo, the Japanese gaming giant that owns the Pokémon franchise, halted the global rollout of Pokémon GO following the game’s unexpected popularity. Nevertheless, enterprising Indians have found a way around the obstacle by downloading a special file for Android versions.

In less than a week, Pokémon GO has become the subject of WhatsApp and Facebook groups, Reddit threads, and Twitter humour. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who returned on Tuesday from a four-nation Africa tour, too got a flavour of the popularity, as jokesters on Twitter began comparing his travels to the real-world hunt of a Pokémon GO addict.

There have also been suggestions on how the prime minister can capitalise on the Pokémon GO app.

There have also been some complaints.