A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for Michelle Obama

It's been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for Michelle Obama.

First, what must have been a long awaited visit to the Taj Mahal was cancelled because of a sudden rescheduling following the death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah.

Then she wore what can only be described as a tent with sleeves to President Pranab Mukherjee's state dinner at Rashtrapati Bhavan, a dress so inappropriate that its designer has still not claimed credit for it - unlike the dress she wore when she landed in India, causing its excited creator Bibhu Mohapatra to tweet about it almost instantly. At the state dinner, she was given an alarming present in her hands, a string of pearls and rubies by the very odd Andhra Pradesh MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, who also draped a silk scarf around a startled Obama's neck. The next day, the MP's office duly noted how Obama was so delighted with the scarf and Tirupati prasadam that he invited him to the White House.

On day two, FLOTUS was seated next to Vice President Hamid Ansari's chatty wife Salma, but clearly did not seem too impressed with the display of Soviet-style firepower and acrobatics that the Republic Day parade consists of. When she surfaced again at Rashtrapati Bhavan's At-Home, she was civil to everyone she greeted, spending extra time with some such as Smriti Irani and Piyush Goyal's wife, Seema, but was prevented from mingling with the crowd by strict Secret Service protocol.

The only time she came to life was at the Siri Fort address by President Barack Obama who called out to her on several occasions, both to highlight her academic achievements and her faith.

And then stories appeared about how she was blurred on television in Saudi Arabia, presumably for not wearing a headscarf. It later turned out that it was a YouTube video which was edited by a third party. FLOTUS was not erased from the original broadcast. But an agency report said as "a delegation of dozens of Saudi officials — all men — greeted the Obamas in Riyadh, some shook hands with Mrs Obama. Others avoided a handshake but acknowledged the First Lady with a nod as they passed by".

She was appropriately clad from head to toe in blue top, black slacks and a long jacket but it was clearly not enough for the Saudis who launched the hashtag #Michelle_Obama_NotVeiled on Twitter as criticism for not covering her hair. Dailymail.com commented on her thus: In pictures at the airport and Egra Palace, Mrs Obama pursed her lips and glared as she stood with her husband. Even E! Online asked her, "Why the face?" Critics in Saudi Arabia pointed to her visit to Indonesia, where she covered her hair while visiting Istiqlal Mosque.

The contrast with her laughing, dancing visit in 2010 was so stark that one columnist in India even hinted at possible marital discord, referencing stories popularised by that repository of fact, National Enquirer. And as if that was not enough, her upstaging as fashion icon was even immortalised by her husband at his speech at the state dinner.